{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.budd.senate.gov/2025/09/11/sen-budd-commerce-committee-colleagues-highlight-need-to-bolster-u-s-leadership-in-ai-innovation/", "Sen. Budd, Commerce Committee Colleagues Highlight Need to Bolster U.S. leadership in AI Innovation", "2025-09-11", "2025", "2025-09", "Republican", "Senate", "NC", "Ted Budd", "B001305", "www.budd.senate.gov", "budd", "https://www.budd.senate.gov/category/news/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Hearing with OSTP Director Kratsios outlines the Trump administration\u2019s AI strategy\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 At yesterday\u2019s Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Manufacturing, and Competitiveness hearing titled \u201cAI\u2019ve Got a Plan: America\u2019s AI Action Plan,\u201d Sen. Budd led his Senate Republican colleagues in discussing the Trump administration\u2019s \u201cAI Action Plan\u201d with testimony from Michael Kratsios, Director, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Below are some highlights from today\u2019s hearing, which can be viewed in its entirety HERE.\n\nSen. Budd Receives Update on the Implementation of Trump\u2019s AI Action Plan\n\nSen. Budd: \u201cNow, the AI Action Plan contains a handful of directives for various government agencies, so can you provide a brief update on how implementation of that\u2019s going along?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201c\u2026there\u2019s been a significant amount of progress at the Commerce Department on the AI export package executive order\u2026We had the second meeting of our AI Education Task Force that was chaired by the first lady just last week\u2026And I think from our office, we\u2019re on the hook to do an RFI relating to identifying regulations that may be hindering the progress of AI, and that should be coming out very shortly.\u201d\n\nSen. Budd Highlights the Administration\u2019s Strategy for Exporting the American AI Stack\n\nSen. Budd: \u201c\u2026in your opening testimony, you mentioned the president\u2019s executive order in promoting the export of the American AI technology stack. So unpack this a bit for us if you would, tell us what makes up that tech stack and how we can encourage other nations to adopt it.\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201c\u2026there\u2019s three main components of it, it\u2019s essentially the chips, the algorithms, and then the applications themselves\u2026the hope is that we can flesh out, or the Commerce Department will be fleshing out in the RFP more details around what we\u2019re looking for and we\u2019ll be able to bring together folks from the entire technology community to work on it. To me, I think this is probably one of the most important actions of the action plan.\u201d\n\nSen. Budd Raises Administration\u2019s Concerns if U.S. AI Stack is Not Adopted Globally\n\nSen. Budd: \u201cWe see the optimistic vision in this AI plan, but if we\u2019re not adopted as the U.S. tech stack around the world, if we\u2019re not the standard, what\u2019s the downside to us, and when will Americans know and regret that choice?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201c\u2026the threat we face is that if we aren\u2019t the standard around the world, those models, those applications, we fine-tuned on adversary models, running on adversary chips, and that\u2019s not a long-term solution for the U.S.\u201d\n\nChairman Cruz Secures Backing for AI Regulatory Sandboxes from Director Kratsios\n\nChairman Cruz: \u201c\u2026as part of the legislative framework that I\u2019ve released, I\u2019m going to introduce the SANDBOX Act, which establishes an AI sandbox program within OSTP. Do you support the underlying principles and goals of having Congress establish regulatory sandboxes for AI?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cYes, the AI Action Plan very definitively promotes the idea of using sandboxes. Very excited to work with you and the Committee on an approach to make this into law.\u201d\n\nChairman Cruz Affirms the Administration\u2019s Support for Federal Preemption of State Laws that Cripple AI Development\n\nChairman Cruz: \u201cWhy does the Administration believe that state AI laws and regulations, such as those in California and Colorado, pose a threat to AI deployment and innovation in the United States? And does the Administration support preemption of those laws?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cA patchwork of state regulations is anti-innovation. It makes it extraordinarily difficult for America\u2019s innovators to promulgate their technologies across the United States. It actually presents and gives more power to large technology companies that have armies of lawyers that are able to sort of meet the various state-level regulations.\u201d\n\nSen. Schmitt Emphasizes Source Bias in Large Language AI Models\n\nSen. Schmitt: \u201cI wanted to sort of focus at least the questions on large language models, which of course are only as good as the data that they\u2019re trained on. Source bias in Google search results was a major issue leading up to the 2024 election. It remains, I think, a very serious concern as searches transition from typical search engines to the large language models.\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cYes, this was a big concern of the White House and the president. And that is why, on the same day the report was released, the president signed an executive order around Woke AI\u2026most of the large language model builders are beyond excited to try to provide their models for federal use. So I think we have a lot of leverage here to try to create an environment where these models really are true, seeking, and accurate.\u201d\n\nSen. Moreno Discusses the Importance of Semiconductor Manufacturing & Energy Generation for AI Deployment\n\nSen. Moreno: \u201c\u2026we have to make certain that we\u2019re dominating the world in chips. That\u2019s critically important that we support American-made, American-designed chips.\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cYes. And I think that being able to not only design them here in the United States but also fabricate them is very important. The level above that is the models themselves. So we need to lead the world in large language models, which we do. And above that are the applications, and those combined create the stack, which is so important.\u201d\n\nSen. Moreno: \u201cWe need sound energy policy where we have the most reliable, affordable and abundant energy. That\u2019s really important, and that should be co-located as much as humanly possible when we\u2019re building out these AI data centers. Would you agree?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cYes. In the President\u2019s remarks in the speech that he gave at the Action Summit, he talked about the value of having behind-the-meter power to support some of these data center build-outs. So being able to co-locate that is very important.\u201d\n\nSen. Young Questions Risks of Patchwork Regulations on American Competitiveness\n\nSen. Young: \u201cCan you speak to the risks associated with continuing to subject our AI innovators to a fragmented series of rules, including those enforced by other countries as well as states here at home?\u201d\n\nMr. Kratsios: \u201cI think creating standards at the U.S. level that are prominent globally is very important. In the weekend after the AI Action Plan was released, the PRC held their large AI conference in Shanghai. And one of the main thrusts of their own AI Action Plan they released in response to ours was a desire to create a global entity, an AI entity in Shanghai that would then promulgate global rules around AI for the world. And this is an example of why it\u2019s so important for the U.S. to be the leader in the way that we provide standards around AI, particularly around model evaluation and standard setting.\u201d\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:10:29Z"]], "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://www.budd.senate.gov/2025/09/11/sen-budd-commerce-committee-colleagues-highlight-need-to-bolster-u-s-leadership-in-ai-innovation/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.7482438124716282, "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"}