Cybersecurity Policy Report, AI Briefing Leaves House Science Committee Leaders With Differing Views on Regulation, (Sep 16, 2026)
Leaders of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee offered differing views on how to approach AI (artificial intelligence) security issues after a briefing yesterday by leading AI developers.
“As AI becomes increasingly capable, we can promote the development of trustworthy and reliable systems without sacrificing the innovation that gives America a competitive edge,” Committee Chairman Brian Babin (R., Texas) said in a news release.
“Like any new technology, AI presents both risks and opportunities. Our overarching goal remains clear: ensuring that America—not the Chinese Communist Party—leads the global AI race,” Rep. Babin said.
But the committee’s ranking member, Zoe Lofgren (D., Calif.), complained that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) had failed to champion any of the 10 AI-related bills the committee passed “that address the AI boom and the risks that come with it.”
“Unfortunately, Speaker Johnson hasn’t brought these bills up for a vote in the full House. The Speaker is apparently following President Trump’s admonition that we should do absolutely nothing to address the risks of AI,” she said in a news release.
The briefing included a discussion of “recent loss-of-control incidents among different AI systems and how to prevent these events from happening in the future,” she noted.
“Each incident is unique and each can teach us different lessons about regulating AI responsibly,” Rep. Lofgren said. “We have to develop policy interventions that improve internal control, robust cybersecurity, and incentivize good governance for frontier AI systems.”
“Democrats are ready to move forward on bipartisan solutions to this problem. We share the concerns that Americans across the nation have on the risks of AI and we’ll keep working with experts to develop good AI governance that will enable us to capitalize on the positive promises of AI while also keeping people safe,” she said.
“Should Democrats control the House next Congress, we will hit the ground running and actually get something done on AI,” she added.
The committee was briefed by representatives from Hugging Face, Inc., which was the victim of an AI agent cyber attack; METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research), an AI assessment nonprofit; and AI developers Anthropic and OpenAI.
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