March 23: This week in AI federal policy

DC/ai Decoded: A weekly newsletter on developments in artificial intelligence and quantum federal policy

This week decoded

The White House has released a National AI Legislative Framework that includes federal preemption of state laws.

In Congress, lawmakers are accelerating efforts to introduce substantive AI regulatory proposals, setting the stage for coordinated, multi-jurisdictional action in the next Congress, if not sooner. Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz (R‑TX) signaled that his committee plans to take up AI-related issues in the coming weeks.

Read more below

Congress

Hearings

Last week

• On March 17, the House Financial Services Committee holds a hearing on “Updating America’s Financial Privacy Framework for the 21st Century.”

• On March 17, The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a hearing on “Stealth Stealing: China’s Ongoing Theft of U.S. Innovation.”

• On March 17, the House Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection Subcommittee holds a hearing on “DeepSeek and Unitree Robotics: Examining the National Security Risks of PRC Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, and Autonomous Technologies and Building a Secure U.S. Technology Base.”

This week

• On March 25, the House Judiciary Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet Subcommittee holds a hearing on “Oversight of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.”

• On March 25, the Joint Economic Committee holds a hearing on “The Rising Global Scam Economy: Modernizing Federal Approaches to Protect Americans from Foreign Fraudsters.”

• On March 26, the House Financial Services Digital Assets, Financial Technology, and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee holds a hearing on “Innovation at the Speed of Markets: How Regulators Keep Pace with Technology.”

Legislation

• Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) released a discussion draft of The Republic Unifying Meritocratic Performance Advancing Machine intelligence by Eliminating Regulatory Interstate Chaos Across American Industry (TRUMP AMERICA AI) Act to protect children, creators, conservatives, and communities from exploitation, abuse, and censorship and ensure American AI companies can innovate without “cumbersome regulation.” The draft framework includes Blackburn’s has previously introduced bills, the Kids Online Safety Act and NO FAKES Act. (Text)

• Sens. Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Peter Welch (D-VT) and Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced the Research and Oversight of Artificial Intelligence in Courts Act of 2026 to establish a task force of judicial experts to examine the integration of AI speech-to-text and automatic speech technologies in American courts. (Text)

• Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) introduced the AI Guardrails Act to establish left and right limits on how the Department of Defense can use AI by banning the DOD from firing autonomous weapons to kill without human authorization, prohibiting the use of AI to spy on Americans and to launch nuclear weapons. (Press release)

• Sens. Ted Budd (R-NC) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) introduced the Artificial Intelligence Ready Data Act to create a modern federal approach to opening government data assets to train and develop stronger American artificial intelligence models. (Text)

• Reps. Don Beyer (D-VA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and April McClain Delaney (D-MD) introduced the Guaranteeing and Upholding Americans’ Right to Decide Responsible AI Laws and Standards (GUARDRAILS) Act to repeal President Donald Trump’s executive order entitled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence.” Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI) will introduce companion legislation in the Senate. (Text)

• Reps. Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Darren Soto (D-FL), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Jennifer McClellan (D-VA), and Kim Schrier (D-WA) introduced the CHATBOT Act to prohibit AI chatbots from impersonating licensed professionals in the medical, legal, and financial fields. (Text)

• Reps. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) and Jay Obernolte (R-CA) introduced the Small AI Innovators Empowerment Act to direct the Department of Commerce, in collaboration with NIST and the SBA, to conduct a study on challenges faced by small artificial intelligence businesses across the country, including federal and non-federal funding opportunities for small AI businesses, including early and seed funding; the ability of small AI businesses to access R&D tax credits; downstream policy impacts on small AI businesses, including regulatory uncertainty; and talent and recruitment challenges faced by small AI businesses. (Press release)

Correspondence

• Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner (D-VA) sent letters to OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Meta, Adobe, ElevenLabs, Cohere, Microsoft, MidJourney, Canva, Snap, Google, Synthesia, TikTok US, BlueSky, Pinterest, and Reddit urging them to take action against maliciously manipulated media, such as deepfakes, with a series of measures centered around transparency, collaboration, and means of enforcement. (Letter)

• Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI) sent a letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick raising concerns about large-scale advanced AI chip smuggling, in light of the recent indictments of Super Micro Computer employees. They request Lutnick begin implementing the anti-diversion provisions in the Chip Security Act to prevent China from stealing U.S. advanced technology and undermining the Trump administration’s current export control policy. (Letter)

Publications, Meetings, and Events

• The Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a report on “Pentagon-Anthropic Dispute over Autonomous Weapon Systems: Potential Issues for Congress” (Paper)

Trump Administration

White House

• The Trump Administration released its National AI Legislative Framework, addressing six key objectives: Protecting Children and Empowering Parents; Safeguarding and Strengthening American Communities; Respecting Intellectual Property Rights and Supporting Creators; Preventing Censorship and Protecting Free Speech; Enabling Innovation and Ensuring American AI Dominance; and Educating Americans and Developing an AI-Ready Workforce; plus, Establishing a Federal Policy Framework, Preempting Cumbersome State AI Laws. (Framework)(Fact sheet)

Commerce Department

• Commerce withdrew a proposed regulation to limit exports of advanced artificial intelligence chips worldwide without prior approval from the US government. The draft rule was intended to replace the January 2025 Biden-era regulation on global access to AI chips. (Reuters)

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)

• On March 27, NIST holds a virtual meeting of the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology for an update on major programs at NIST, strategic priorities, and budget.

Noteworthy Quotes

ADMINISTRATION

The White House

• The White House posted “The Trump administration is committed to WINNING the AI race for the American people. President Trump has unveiled a commonsense national policy framework in order to achieve this goal while keeping Americans safe. Today, the Trump Admin is demonstrating that leadership by issuing a comprehensive national legislative framework that addresses the most pressing policy topics that AI presents. This framework addresses six key objectives.”

• The White House also posted “The Trump Admin is all-in on WINNING the AI race—for American prosperity, security, & a new era of human flourishing. Achieving these goals demands a commonsense national policy framework: unleashing American industry to thrive, while ensuring ALL Americans benefit.”

• White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks posted “In December, President Trump signed an Executive Order tasking us with the development of a national framework for AI, what he called ‘One Rulebook.’ ... Today we are releasing that framework. It will help parents safeguard their children from online harm, shield communities from higher electric bills, protect our First Amendment rights from AI censorship, and ensure that all Americans benefit from this transformative technology. I want to thank President Trump for the opportunity to work on this alongside OSTP Director Michael Kratsios, US CTO Ethan Klein, NEC Deputy Director Ryan Baasch, Senior AI Adviser Sriram Krishnan and many others on the White House team. It’s an honor.”

• Sacks also posted “’The Effective Altruist movement has a structural problem when it comes to conservative America. Its donor class is all Bay Area progressives... Its policy agenda, which calls for sweeping AI regulation and content governance, reads to most conservatives as exactly what it is: a censorship power play dressed up in safety language. To move that agenda… the movement needed a vehicle that didn’t look like it came from them.’”

Department of Defense (DOD)

• Terry Kalka, director of the DOD-Defense Industrial Base Collaborative Information Sharing Environment (DCISE), delivered remarks at the Elastic Public Sector Summit, saying, “I don’t think we’ve gotten to a point where we get a report and we go ‘ah, that was an AI attack there.’ [But] the general trends you see about the increasing numbers of attacks, abandoning of traditional forms of malware, using more sophisticated attacking, living off the land, discovery of zero days — we’re seeing those trends increase pretty much commensurate with what you see in the public. And so we can connect that probably with the ratio of AI… And what really hit home for me just the other day as I was looking at sort of a standard attack kill chain and seeing how much of that can be time-differenced through AI, you can really build a model as an attacker that all you need to do is sort of set basic context [such as directing the model to] ‘go look at this organization, come back to me with, you know, vulnerabilities and what we can get out of them, prioritize them for me. OK, go exploit this. Come back to me when you have, you know, data that I can use and exploit further.’ And … we need our defenders to be thinking along that mindset as well.” (FedScoop)

CONGRESS

National AI Legislative Framework

• House Committee on Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-AR) issued a statement on the Trump Administration National AI Legislative Framework, “I commend President Trump for releasing a thoughtful National Legislative Framework for AI that pairs innovation with targeted safeguards. As Congress moves forward, advancing regulatory sandboxes and a flexible, sectoral based approach will be critical to enabling responsible development. The Committee has long supported a pro-innovation, pro-consumer, pro-investor approach to AI, including through a bipartisan resolution earlier this year. The United States must maintain a ‘try-first’ mindset to preserve our leadership in the global AI race.” (Press release)

• Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) issued a statement saying, “Today’s AI legislative framework takes some steps in the right direction but lacks significant substance. We need laws on AI and children’s privacy and data, including the kinds of user-empowering tools I’ve long championed in bipartisan legislation. We need to do more on deepfake non-consensual intimate images, as I’ve advocated for years now. We need laws to ensure that AI benefits all Americans, like my bipartisan Economy of the Future Act is designed to develop. We need researchers, students, and small businesses to have access to AI tools to ensure that development of this technology isn’t concentrated in the hands of a few large companies. We also need national security agencies to establish plans to mitigate against national security threats from advanced AI. But, two years in a row, the Senate Intelligence Committee passed bills that would have required that kind of proactive engagement strategy to get ahead of malicious foreign actors. And two years in a row, President Trump’s allies in Congress killed those provisions from being enacted into law. Unfortunately, this slim framework also does many things wrong. The framework is worse than silent on AI-powered mis- and disinformation, a real and growing threat to our elections, our markets, and our country. Instead, it trots out the same old talking points about combatting partisan or ideological bias to cloak its own inaction on – and worse, its encouragement and use of - deepfakes and other AI slop being used for a wide range of harmful activity. Furthermore, it once again raises the threat of preempting state’s ability to regulate AI where AI affects their citizens and institutions; notably, the administration’s last attempt to do Big AI’s bidding was defeated 99-1 in the Senate last year. Overall, it reminds me of the administration’s cybersecurity strategy: several pages of broad goals, all of them short on substance.” (Press release)

• House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA), Energy & Commerce Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-KY), Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Science, Space, and Technology Committee Chair Brian Babin (R-TX) released a statement saying, “AI has begun to demonstrate its potential to improve Americans’ lives. To ensure we continue to harness its potential and beat China in the global AI race, Congress must take action. Today, the Trump Administration took a critical step in releasing a framework that gives Congress a roadmap to pursue legislation that provides innovators with much-needed certainty, while protecting consumers and prioritizing kids’ online safety. House Republicans look forward to working across the aisle to enact a national framework that unleashes the full potential of AI, cements the U.S. as the global leader, and provides important protections for American families.” (Press release)

• Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA) posted “I applaud the White House’s continued leadership in advancing a national policy framework for artificial intelligence. As this technology rapidly reshapes our economy, workforce, and national security landscape, it is critical that the United States remains at the forefront of innovation while establishing clear, responsible guardrails for AI. I will continue to work with my colleagues and the Administration to turn these priorities into meaningful, forward-looking policy that strengthens American competitiveness and ensures AI is developed and deployed in a way that benefits all Americans.”

• Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) said, “Today, the White House released its AI framework which broadly blocks state AI laws and lacks key consumer protections around AI models and agent safety. While this framework takes steps in the right direction, including child safety and lower energy costs, it is still a half-measure that falls short of what’s necessary for ‘Smart AI’ regulation. AI is too important, — and too vital to our global competitiveness, economy, jobs, and families — to do anything short of a full-measure. Unfortunately, the White House framework fails to address key issues, including strong accountability for AI companies, under the guise of protecting children, communities, and creators. Americans need protection — but this means nothing if we allow the AI industry to be the Wild West. Preemption only makes sense if federal law effectively replaces what states have built with a standard that is truly comprehensive and protects Americans. Simply put, this framework still has a long way to go. Voluntary standards won’t do the trick. In addition to commonsense guardrails, we need serious solutions that address workforce challenges, better incentives for STEM education, enhanced protections against deepfakes, safe and secure AI models and agents, and guarantees that all Americans reap the massive benefits AI offers. We are in a Cold War-era-style race with China, and we must win — both for our economy and our national security. If done the right way, the potential for areas like health care, education, and government efficiency are boundless. But, we have to win it the right way. I’m working with my colleagues to develop a commonsense framework that will create clear and consistent rules of the road which both protect Americans and allow our AI industry to lead the way.” (Press release)

• Rep. Julie Fedorchak (R-ND) said, “There’s no doubt that AI is rapidly transforming how we live and work. The question now is whether America develops the rules of the road and leads the future of this extremely powerful tool, or if we let adversaries like China set the terms,” Fedorchak said. “It cannot be the latter. The White House’s framework strikes the right balance of supporting American competitiveness and long-term innovation while protecting online safety. I’m excited to work with my Energy and Commerce Committee colleagues to move a national framework forward so the U.S. always leads the global AI race.” (Press release)

• Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) said, “President Trump is continuing to repay Big Tech’s campaign donations by proposing to block states from protecting their communities from AI-related harms,” said Senator Markey. “Congress must not only reject Trump’s offensive proposal but also continue blocking Republicans’ bad faith effort to undermine states. We should pass my States’ Right to Regulate AI Act to put power back into the hands of people, not the Big Tech billionaire boys club cozying up to the White House.” (Press release)

Miscellaneous

• House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Gregory Meeks (D-NY) and Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) released a statement following the Trump Administration’s decision to allow AI chip sales to China, “In December, we called on the Department of Commerce to follow the law and provide us information about the Trump administration’s approval of any sale of advanced AI chips to China. We’ve finally received information about the administration’s first license approval and are now more concerned than ever that the Trump administration is undercutting U.S. national security by approving this sale. Congress must pass bipartisan legislation to prevent China from obtaining our advanced technology in order to protect U.S. economic and national security.” (Press release)

• On her AI Guardrails Act, Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) said, “It’s the start of the NDAA season, so it’s something that we’re going to be making a feature of our NDAA work, hopefully on a bipartisan basis.” (Punchbowl)

• On the upcoming priorities of the Senate Commerce Committee, Chair Ted Cruz (R-TX) said, “I’m hoping that we move forward at least on kids online safety legislation and potentially additional AI legislation… At this point, we’re looking for what legislation will have the maximum impact and will have the broadest support so that it can pass.” (Punchbowl)

• Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) posted “Why is Google still getting away with telling lies about conservatives and presenting them as facts? Google needs to take Gemini down until it can ensure this AI chatbot isn’t inherently biased against conservatives.”

• Blackburn also posted “ByteDance’s new AI video app is violating U.S. copyright laws, allowing deepfakes to go viral without consequence. SenPeterWelch and I are demanding the Chinese-owned company shut down this app to protect American innovators.”

• Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) posted “Congress is behind in putting left-right limits on the use of AI at the Pentagon. My bill ensures a human is involved when deadly autonomous weapons are fired, AI can’t be used to spy on Americans... AI is going to shape the future of America’s national security, and we must win the AI race against China. But to do that, we need action that puts limits on AI in the Department of Defense. This is just common sense.”

• Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) posted “The U.S. government maintains the world’s largest and most sophisticated data assets generated through taxpayer dollars. The Artificial Intelligence Ready Data Act aims to leverage the potential of that federal data to maintain American leadership in AI development.”

• Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-WY) posted “Congress has a responsibility to ensure emerging technologies do not compromise the accuracy, security, or integrity of our judicial system. I joined SenatorWicker and SenPeterWelch in introducing the Research and Oversight of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Courts Act. As an attorney for over three decades, I know the importance of precision and accuracy in our legal system.”

• Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) said of his reelection campaign, “That’s a valid critique of, ‘We need the next generation,’ but no one is more, in the whole political scene in America, is talking more about the potential challenges that artificial intelligence poses, particularly for kids coming right out of college. [We have] 9% recent college graduate unemployment, I think that could go to 30% in the next couple years. I think AI long-term will bring great benefits, but I think it’ll be hugely disruptive in the next five years, and I’ll match my policy chops on kind of emerging technology issues with anybody of any age…. It’s going to hit folks coming out of college… You’re going to have a lot of young people who are saying they did everything right, they still couldn’t get a job. And you’re going to have a lot… of pissed off parents and grandparents who helped support that $200,000 education. I think we can… make these AI companies help us figure that out, and help pay for it.” Warner added, “This sounds a little crazy, but we may need to try and convince folks to no longer major in business administration, because those jobs are first being eliminated [by AI], and become a nurse. We need a lot more healthcare workers.” (The Rotunda)

What I’m Reading This Week

• The White House’s AI Strongarming Frustrates Fellow Republicans, Jonathan Gibson, The Dispatch.

• AI is Coming for Politics, Thomas B. Edsall, The New York Times.

• No Need to Reboot: GenAI Fits the Tax Stack, Michael Plowgian, Alistair Pepper, Prita Subramanian, and Michael Timmerman, Tax Notes.

• Russia’s Push for AI Expansion Threatens to Undermine Crypto Mining, Crypto News.

• The Latest AI Bill’s 5 Biggest Flaws, Kevin T. Frazier and Jennifer Huddleston, CATO Institute.

• ‘Plumbers regularly earn more than lawyers’: Top Entrepreneur Makes a Bold Prediction that AI will Flip the American Dream, Sydney Lake, Fortune.

About Zero One Strategies

Zero One Strategies is a specialized government relations practice dedicated to navigating the complex landscape of U.S. federal policy in emerging technologies. As advancements in technology continue to outpace regulatory frameworks, Zero One Strategies aims to provide strategic guidance and bipartisan advocacy for innovators and businesses operating at the forefront of technological development.

The practice focuses on key areas such as artificial intelligence, digital assets, blockchain, decentralized technologies, cybersecurity, data, and digital infrastructure, as well as the multiple policy issues impacting these sectors, including tax and financial services.

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