Sanders and Casar Introduce Bill to Create a Cabinet-Level AI Department
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Greg Casar have filed legislation to establish a new Cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence.
The proposal, unveiled on Wednesday, seeks to create a dedicated executive agency focused on overseeing frontier AI development. Sanders and Casar first disclosed the idea on Sept. 3, positioning it as Congress's response to growing concerns about rapid AI advances. The bill would elevate AI oversight to a Cabinet rank, signaling heightened federal attention to the technology.
Why it matters
A dedicated AI department would give the U.S. government a focused structure to manage emerging risks and opportunities of advanced artificial intelligence.
How this story developed
- Aug 4 Texas governor pauses new data center approvals pending power grid audit
- Sep 2 Trump labeled communities that reject data‑center projects “backwards and poor” and warned that China would welcome such resistance.
- Sep 10 Jensen Huang said AI will become the biggest driver of cybersecurity, turning it into a major revenue stream for tech firms.
- Sep 12 The House is set to debate the Ratepayer Protection Act, a measure aimed at easing power costs for data centers and appealing to voters concerned about AI-driven utility bills. In the Senate, a crypto market-structure proposal is expected to face a tough vote amid ethics disputes involving Donald Trump, while the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act looks likely to advance with strong backing from donors. Lawmakers are racing to pass these initiatives before a three-week Senate session ends and the midterm elections arrive.
- Sep 13 Jon Husted introduced legislation to shield consumers from rising electricity bills linked to data‑center demand.
- Sep 15 Senator Bernie Sanders and commentator Steve Bannon will speak together at the Pro-Human Assembly in Washington, urging stricter AI safeguards.
- Sep 16 Bannon blamed the president’s inaction on the influence of tech oligarchs.
- Sep 17 A bipartisan House bill to shift data‑center infrastructure and energy costs to tech firms has been introduced.
- Sep 19 In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump said the AI Force will mirror the Space Force and aim to protect the fast-growing AI sector. He promised the initiative will encourage development while using existing laws to curb abuses, and he pledged not to hinder the industry’s growth. The post also claimed AI could become as significant as the Internet, potentially representing a quarter of the U.S. economy, and asserted that the United States currently leads China in the field.
- Sep 19 Trump added the AI Force proposal to his agenda.
- Sep 20 Huang added a dismissal of AI apocalypse warnings to his earlier focus on AI‑driven cybersecurity growth.
- Sep 21 Senator John Fetterman publicly endorsed President Trump’s data‑center push, aligning with the administration despite broad opposition.
- Sep 22 Trump announced the creation of an “AI Force” and the selection of an AI czar.
- Sep 23 Coverage now omits the previously reported warnings and resignation of Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon.
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