Analysis | As election looms, lawmakers look ahead to next AI hurdles (2024)

But lawmakers also are weighing the technology’s impact beyond the campaign trail; on Tuesday, they will hold a major hearing on how AI will shake up the workforce and public governance.

The session will mark the first time the Joint Economic Committee — one of only a handful of bicameral congressional panels — has taken up the issue. It’s another sign of how enmeshed the topic has become with broader policy debates on Capitol Hill.

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D- N.M.), who chairs the committee, will kick off the hearing by looking at how lawmakers can ensure companies roll out AI tools in a way that “augments” the output from workers — without replacing them.

“AI could fundamentally alter the U.S. labor market in the very near future … The federal government has an important role to ensure we reap the rewards of this new frontier, while mitigating the risks,” Heinrich says in his prepared opening remarks.

The session, one of dozens of congressional hearings focused on AI in recent years, also will examine how AI could help the government run more efficiently.

Rep. David Schweikert (R-Ariz.), the committee’s vice chairman, will zero in on how “AI can be implemented in government to improve bureaucratic processes and reduce administrative costs and find policy approaches to encourage their implementation,” according to communications director Hunter Lovell.

Schweikert plans to “make clear that onerous regulations reduce innovation and hamper our competitive advantage and geopolitical security and recognize that existing laws can already address AI safety concerns,” Lovell said.

The hearing will feature scholars and think tank experts, including Brian Miller of the American Enterprise Institute, Adam Thierer of the R Street Institute, Ayanna Howard of Ohio State University, and Jennifer Gaudioso of the Sandia National Laboratories.

Civil society groups have grown increasingly frustrated with the direction of congressional leaders’ AI talks.

Last month, more than 50 such groups released a “shadow report” meant to counter a legislative road map unveiled by Heinrich, Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other lawmakers, whom advocates accused of bowing to industry pressure, as my colleague Cat Zakrzewski reported for the Tech Brief.

The Senate road map called for pumping billions into new funding for AI research. Critics said it offered little detail on how Congress plans to protect consumers from AI harms.

“Civil society, worker, and researchers’ voices do not have the lobbying budgets, campaign contributions, or other resources that industry regularly weaponizes to capture legislative processes, but that does not mean they deserve to be relegated to an afterthought,” they wrote in the report.

Schumer spokeswoman Allison Biasotti said in a statement that he “agrees that there needs to be strong safety and accountability measures in place and we’re going to continue to work closely with anyone who supports those goals as legislation is written.”

Heinrich will argue Tuesday that more AI investments are needed “to make sure the United States is leading the way when it comes to both embracing opportunities and managing the safety and security risks that come with AI.”

Schumer and his allies previously voiced a desire to pass legislation checking AI’s impact on the 2024 elections, but the path ahead for those proposals remains unclear.

Leaders in both the Senate and House have said they plan to pursue a longer time frame to place broader safeguards on the tools, which could span years.

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