Ocasio-Cortez Calls Out Pattern of Corruption Behind Trump and Republican Efforts to Ban States from Regulating AI

Washington, D.C. - Today, during a hearing in the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) highlighted the pattern of corruption behind both Republicans’ efforts to pass a 10-year moratorium on state-level AI regulation and Trump’s Executive Order to block state-level AI legislation.

Find Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks as delivered below:

Thank you, Mr. Chair and Ranking Member Clarke, and I want to thank our witnesses for offering their expertise today.

Now, this is the seventh hearing we've had this year on the threats of AI. 

Yet our Congress has passed zero pieces of legislation to address the many, many legitimate concerns that have been raised regarding this issue.

And, in fact, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress this year are actually pushing the opposite. 

Instead of legislation regarding artificial intelligence, they have been trying multiple times to pass legislation that would actually end any regulation or rulemaking, particularly on the state level, to limit any oversight of AI at all.

And because Republicans couldn't pass their ten-year ban on state AI regulations, Trump then went around and skirted Congress with his own executive order, trying to ban states from imposing any AI regulations at all, not just on biological activity, but, you know, through children's safety, through all sorts of different measures. 

And in fact, this is happening as AI chatbots are causing children to take their own lives, as AI data centers are skyrocketing electricity costs and polluting local communities.

And as an overwhelming majority of Americans now worry that AI will take their jobs and leave them permanently unemployed.

Doctor Havers, as a public health expert, is it safe to say that there are public health consequences of failing to regulate AI?

Absolutely. I mean, we've heard from these three witnesses of the threat that failing to regulate AI has for generating novel, emerging pathogenic threats that could cause the next pandemic. I mean, I think in addition, there are a lot of concerns in the public health community about patient data privacy. I also think that AI can be used to spread misinformation about, you know, treatments and vaccines, for example. And I think failing to regulate AI if it's not done at the federal level, I think states probably do need to be empowered to protect their own patients, people living in their jurisdictions' privacy.

And so, we have, as an expert witness testified today, you have stated and are stating as well as several others that there are real public health consequences for the continued failure of regulating or there being congressional action in the AI space. 

And so, it begs the question, why is the federal government trying to prevent any state regulation of AI and protecting the American people? 

And I think it's pretty plain to say that it's because this is a story of corruption. 

AI giants like Google, Meta, and Microsoft have poured millions of dollars into Donald Trump's privately funded white house ballroom.

Tech CEOs have been on Capitol Hill in recent weeks to talk with Speaker Johnson, who is conveniently getting a nearly $30 billion Meta data center built in his state, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have disclosed stock purchases of top AI companies.

In fact, four U.S. Senators have purchased stocks while they were negotiating a massive deregulation of this industry.

And on top of that, AI industry executives and investors are working to raise $100 million to influence the upcoming midterm elections. 

And the reason that these AI tech giants are lobbying for a ban on state-level regulations is because they know that they don't want to fight these regulations in all 50 states. 

It's far more expensive to lobby 50 statehouses than it is to try to centralize your operations and lobby in Congress and the president of the United States and the White House. So that's what's going on here.

And it is very important that the American people understand that President Trump's executive order to try to prevent any of this action to protect people is endangering their lives. It is endangering public health, and it is endangering the integrity of our public institutions. 

And with that, I yield back.

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