-9999

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. MERKLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss the critical need for regulation of artificial intelligence.

This work period, the Senate is poised to take up the House's reconciliation package, a disastrous proposal that strips healthcare away from tens of millions of Americans and dismantles our country's clean energy revolution, all to deliver tax cuts to billionaires.

But buried nearly 300 pages into this bill is something quite shocking: a blanket, 10-year ban on States and local governments from regulating artificial intelligence. That is right. Rather than proposing any plan to address the risk of this powerful and fast- evolving technology, my Republican colleagues have chosen to block the States and to block local governments from acting. They don't want to do anything, but they want to block anyone else from acting as well.

They would tie the hands of Governors and tie the hands of State legislators who are stepping up to protect their constituents from the unchecked harms of AI, without any plan of their own to regulate these technologies here in Congress.

In fact, just this morning, 260 State lawmakers--half Republicans and half Democrats--from all 50 States, sent a letter to Congress opposing any provision which can block them from acting to protect their citizens. And just a few weeks ago, 40 State attorneys general sent a similar letter to congressional leaders urging Congress to reject the 10-year moratorium.

These State leaders are right. This provision would be devastating for our country.

The broad preemption language could prevent States from prohibiting social media platforms from targeting teenage girls with ads for dangerous weight-loss drugs, enacting commonsense protections against algorithms that unjustly deny a senior citizen medical care, and safeguarding workers from discriminatory hiring practices driven by biased AI tools.

One expert warned that the language is so sweeping that it could undermine contract law and break the internet itself.

Let me be clear. This is a recipe to repeat the failures from the last decade--failures driven by our failure to hold Big Tech accountable for its abuses.

How has that worked out for us? Well, today, thanks to our failure to regulate Big Tech, we have a privacy crisis, a youth mental health crisis, and a teenage mental health crisis in our country, and the Surgeon General of the United States points the finger at social media as a major part of the problem that we have with teenage and youth mental health issues in our country.

Thankfully, in the face of Federal inaction, States have led. States have stood up. They have moved to protect young people online, secure consumer privacy, and confront algorithmic bias.

But this provision that snuck into this bill that we are going to consider over the next month--this provision snuck in the bill--would erase that progress. It would roll back years of hard-won protections and prevent future action, just when it is needed the most, just when it is becoming very clear to the entire country that there is a sinister side to cyberspace, as well as a good side. Yes, we want it to do wonderful things in our society, but we also know that it can cause great harm as well.

So instead of shutting down State leadership, instead of shutting down State legislators and shutting down Governors across the Nation who want to work on this issue, Congress itself should step up to start to put the protections in place for our entire Nation. We must pass legislation that confronts the real harms of artificial intelligence, while ensuring that the United States remains the leader on this important and promising technology.

We want to reap the benefits of AI. We want to have AI be used across our society, but we also want to protect against the harmful effects of AI if it is put in the wrong hands to be used for the wrong purposes.

That is why I authored the AI Civil Rights Act, the most comprehensive AI legislation introduced in the U.S. Congress, which ensures that artificial intelligence serves the public good, not private profit exclusively. The bill would ensure that the AI age does not supercharge the bias and discrimination already prevalent today.

Specifically, my legislation establishes new rules when companies use algorithms to make decisions on jobs, on housing, on healthcare, on banking, on the criminal justice system, and other important aspects of our lives.

The AI Civil Rights Act is a balanced approach that requires companies to detect and address bias in their algorithmic decisions without stifling innovation.

Make no mistake, we can have an AI revolution while also protecting the civil rights and liberties of everyday Americans. We can support innovation without supercharging the tracking and targeting of young people online. We can promote competition while safeguarding our environment.

But with their blanket, 10-year ban on State AI regulation, Republicans are choosing a sledgehammer over a scalpel. They are choosing Big Tech over kids, families, seniors, and disadvantaged communities across this country.

We cannot allow this to happen. I am committed to fighting this 10- year ban with every tool at my disposal, and that is by ensuring that it is going to be clear that this 10-year ban on State AI regulation is a policy change that has no impact on the Federal budget.

What does that mean if this provision that has been stuck in this bill has no impact on the Federal budget? Here is what it means: It means that that provision cannot be included in a reconciliation bill.

If Senate Republicans keep the House language in their reconciliation bill, I will raise a point of order against it. I will raise a point of order saying that it is in violation of our rules that this kind of a change can be built into this legislation.

When my Republican colleagues are ready to have a serious conversation about AI regulation, my door is wide open. We should be discussing this on a bipartisan basis. But this backdoor AI moratorium, it is not serious. This backdoor moratorium is not responsible. This backdoor moratorium is not acceptable. There is too much at stake.

We can't say for 10 years there is no regulation at the State level if they can see harms that are being committed. They must have the right to be able to legislate. And there is one way for us to avoid it, of course. We could legislate. We could pass national legislation. But at this point, I still see no appetite on the Republican side for that to even commence as a serious discussion.

So with that, I just want to put the Senate on notice that I am going to raise a point of order if, in fact, this AI moratorium on any State legislation remains in the bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source