Johnson pointed to industry discussions in early winter, leaving three competing safeguard bills without scheduled floor votes.
Representatives Sam Liccardo (Rep-D California), George Whitesides (Rep-D California), and Lori Trahan (Rep-D Massachusetts) urged House Speaker Mike Johnson (Rep-R Louisiana) to keep the chamber in session until it advances bipartisan artificial intelligence safeguards.
The demand. Their circulating letter garnered only three signatures, warning that lawmakers "cannot disagree about the imperative for Congress to act" following public extinction warnings from former Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon.
The pushback. Republican leaders declined to cancel recess or schedule floor votes, with Nathaniel Moran (Rep-R Texas) arguing policymakers should allow the sector to flourish while deliberately mitigating risks.
What next. Johnson said he wants AI companies to discuss consensus guardrails at the start of winter, leaving three competing statutory frameworks without calendar dates.
What the three competing safeguard bills would mandate
- The bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act requires covered advanced models to retain human-controlled mechanisms to slow, suspend, or shut down operations.
- The bipartisan FRONTIER Act establishes a national risk-based framework for developing and deploying advanced systems.
- Legislation planned by Bernie Sanders (Sen-I Vermont) and Greg Casar (Rep-D Texas) halts advanced AI development and bans superintelligence.