House Democrats call for Congress to regulate AI, not the industry
House Democrats called on Congress on Tuesday to regulate artificial intelligence, warning that AI companies cannot be trusted to police themselves and that the federal government must step in with industry-wide safeguards. The push sets up a clash with House Republican leaders, who say Congress lacks the expertise to regulate the fast-moving technology and should rely on the industry for guidance.
“This is not an industry that can regulate itself,” Rep. Pete Aguilar, a California Democrat and chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Capitol. “We have the ability, and we should be regulating them and putting sensible guardrails to protect consumers while supporting an innovation economy.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, made the case for letting the industry lead on Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” program.
“Congress is obviously less qualified than the people who are pushing this frontier to know all the ins and outs of it,” Johnson said. He said he wants to sit down with AI leaders as early as this week to gauge their view of potential restrictions and Congress’s role in installing them.
Democrats described Johnson’s position as a classic case of the fox guarding the henhouse. They want the House, which is scheduled to leave Washington this week for a long midterm break, to remain in town to hash out legislation.
“We have an obligation to protect the American public, and that’s what we should be doing by creating guardrails and rules of the road,” Aguilar said. “This is our job. If we’re not up to speed, then it’s on each member to get up to speed. And it’s unfortunate that the Speaker thinks so low of this institution.”
The debate intensified after a public statement from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, who warned that AI technology is moving faster than the industry’s capacity to control it. He said Anthropic will voluntarily slow down that development, and urged other companies to do the same or risk a global catastrophe. Two other AI executives, Sam Altman and Elon Musk, endorsed Amodei’s message.
President Trump has rejected the idea of adopting tougher rules for the industry, arguing that such limits would disadvantage American companies in the race for global AI dominance.
“There is a SICK conspiracy going on against AI and Data Centers, and the only one that is happy about it is China,” Trump wrote Monday on X. “WHOEVER WINS AI, WINS!”
Democrats acknowledged that any regulations adopted by Congress would not extend beyond America’s borders. Rep. Ted Lieu, a California Democrat and vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, urged Trump to press Chinese leaders to commit to a ban on AI systems launching nuclear weapons, which became law in the U.S. in the last Congress.
“There are things that we can do to get other countries to follow the lead the U.S. has taken in AI,” Lieu said.
Lieu called on all AI companies to follow Anthropic’s example and tap the brakes on development.
“Until they can make their AI models and agents safe, so they don’t go rogue or go hack other companies, they need to slow down their development and put in adequate guardrails,” Lieu said. “And we cannot expect the industry to regulate itself. We need Congress to act.”
