{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://gottheimer.house.gov/posts/release-gottheimer-lawler-urge-ftc-to-protect-anti-discrimination-safeguards-in-ai-as-proposed-rule-threatens-civil-rights-protections", "RELEASE: Gottheimer, Lawler Urge FTC to Protect Anti-Discrimination Safeguards in AI as Proposed Rule Threatens Civil-Rights Protections", "2026-08-04", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "House", "NJ", "Josh Gottheimer", "G000583", "gottheimer.house.gov", "gottheimer", "https://gottheimer.house.gov/press", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Representatives Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) and Mike Lawler (NY-17) sent a bipartisan letter to Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairman Andrew Ferguson and submitted it as a formal public comment, urging the agency to revise its proposed policy statement so that it does not deter AI developers from preventing discrimination.\n\nToday, most leading AI developers actively work to keep their models from discriminating based on race, gender, age, and other federally protected characteristics. Companies test their models to prevent them from recommending worse loan terms to Black-owned businesses and to stop them from generating harmful stereotypes like \u201cJews control the banks and media.\u201d\n\nThe FTC\u2019s proposed policy statement, \u201cConcerning the Suppression of Accuracy in Artificial Intelligence Systems,\u201d released earlier this month, aims to ensure that AI outputs are accurate and free of ideological bias. In their letter, Congressmen Gottheimer and Lawler wrote: \u201cWhile ensuring the accuracy of AI-generated information is critical, it should not come at the cost of preventing discrimination.\u201d They warned that the FTC\u2019s approach \u201cwould deter companies from investing in anti-discrimination mitigations for fear of FTC litigation.\u201d\n\nThe members urged the FTC to \u201cadd an explicit civil-rights safe harbor to the policy statement,\u201d clarifying that good-faith measures to prevent unlawful discrimination, comply with civil-rights laws, reduce harmful stereotypes, and address unequal error rates are never deceptive. As they put it: \u201cAI companies must not falsify facts in the name of fairness, but they also must prevent discrimination, stereotypes, and unequal treatment.\u201d\n\nRead the full letter here.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-05T07:37:37Z", "2026-08-05T07:38:44Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://gottheimer.house.gov/posts/release-gottheimer-lawler-urge-ftc-to-protect-anti-discrimination-safeguards-in-ai-as-proposed-rule-threatens-civil-rights-protections"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8172988891601562, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}