{"id":"e17d482fd1bffa89","congress_number":119,"bill_type":"hr","bill_number":"9917","title":"AI Kill Switch Act","plain_summary":"Would require AI systems to have a mechanism to be shut down or disabled under defined conditions. It aims to give operators or regulators a way to halt an AI system that behaves dangerously.","ai_relevance_score":1,"topics":["safety","transparency"],"status":"committee","introduced_at":"2026-07-23","last_action_at":"2026-07-24","last_action_text":"Referred to the Subcommittee on Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection.","sponsor_id":"L000582","full_text_url":null,"created_at":"2026-08-27T17:36:46.532Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:29.132Z","ai_reasoning":null,"reported_at":null,"passed_house_at":null,"passed_senate_at":null,"became_law_at":null,"recorded_votes":[],"classifier":null,"url":"https://whovotedwhy.com/bills/e17d482fd1bffa89","congress_gov_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9917","sponsor":{"id":"L000582","bioguide_id":"L000582","first_name":"Ted","last_name":"Lieu","full_name":"Ted Lieu","party":"D","state":"CA","chamber":"house","district":"36","title":"Representative","photo_url":null,"twitter_handle":"RepTedLieu","official_website":"https://lieu.house.gov","fec_candidate_ids":["H4CA33119"],"lis_id":null,"is_active":true,"term_start":"2025-01-03","term_end":"2027-01-03","created_at":"2026-09-08T22:51:51.014Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:13.531Z"},"roll_calls":[],"citing_statements":[{"id":"85109e04578c3625","politician_id":"M001224","type":"press_release","content":"In 1951, Alan Turing, the father of modern computing, looked at the thinking machines he helped invent and offered a quiet warning. Once machines could learn and reason for themselves, he said, “we should have to expect the machines to take control.” For decades, that read like science fiction. But, this summer, it started to read like a forecast.\n\nWithin weeks of one another, three of America’s leading AI labs disclosed that during safety testing their most advanced systems had slipped the boundaries set for them—reaching networks meant to be off limits and in some cases breaking into real companies before anyone intervened. These were controlled tests, not intentional attacks. But machines built to follow instructions began to act on their own, in ways their own creators didn’t intend or anticipate.\n\nThese are exactly the scenarios a safeguard must be ready for, and why we introduced the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act.\n\nThe idea is common sense: the most powerful AI systems—the ones capable of supercharging a cyberattack or enhancing a chemical or biological weapon—should be built so that a human can always stop them. Our bill directs the DHS Secretary to require developers of these frontier systems to build in ways for humans to intervene: to slow a model down, cut off user access, roll it back, or, in a true emergency, completely shut it off.\n\nSafety and innovation are not mutually exclusive. And, we both understand that the AI race has important international implications. America must lead, and nothing about our bill slows down our ability to do just that. Our approach avoids burdensome regulations that stifle innovation or reduce competition. To the contrary, our bill simply mandates reasonable safety measures for the largest, most capable commercial systems—the handful powerful enough to cause serious economic harm or threaten national security and public safety. Our proposal leaves ordinary software, small businesses, academic research, and personal use untouched. It calls only for a proportionate response when covered incidents occur, matched to the seriousness of the threat, with a full shutdown reserved only for absolute emergencies.\n\nGovernment policymaking will never keep pace with AI advancement. But, what it can (and should) do is put basic safety measures in place that keep humans in the loop and in control. Don’t take our word for it, though. The industry is calling for AI safety. Geoffrey Hinton, often called the “godfather of AI,” left his position at Google to warn that these systems could one day slip beyond human control. And just this summer, more than 1,300 employees of America’s leading AI companies—including the chief executive of Anthropic, the top scientist at OpenAI and Meta, and a co-founder of Google DeepMind—signed an open letter, “Pacing the Frontier,” asking the U.S. government to help develop “the technical and governance tools needed to deliberately pace the frontier” of AI development. Consider that for a moment: the people racing to build the most powerful machines on earth asked Washington to help keep them under control. When the pioneers of an innovation speak in such solidarity, we should listen.\n\nOur bill is a reasoned, prudent, and narrowly tailored response to a real risk. A kill switch does nothing to constrain the intended capabilities of an AI system; it simply insists that when Americans hand extraordinary power to a machine, a human needs to stay in charge of it. Mandating a commonsense off switch on the most dangerous systems is well short of the heavy-handed regulation that could smother a young industry. The bill applies to AI models that have already been built, which by definition does not stop innovation. It’s the lightest of government touches, and one that more than 86% of all Americans agree should happen, regardless of party affiliation.\n\nConsider who is making this argument together. One of us is a Republican from Texas; the other a Democrat from California. We certa","url":"https://moran.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=2870","published_at":"2026-08-19","ai_topics":["safety","regulation","national_security","innovation"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Moran champions the bipartisan AI Kill Switch Act requiring frontier AI developers to build human intervention and shutdown capabilities, framing it as light-touch safety that does not impede American AI leadership.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["e17d482fd1bffa89"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"e17d482fd1bffa89","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"e76f942d337b4cb4","politician_id":"L000582","type":"press_release","content":"“As AI systems grow more capable and more autonomous, no law guarantees that the companies building the most powerful models can actually shut a system down when it malfunctions, causes serious harm, or slips out of human control. The AI Kill Switch Act closes that gap by requiring the largest AI developers to maintain the technical ability to contain or shut down their most powerful systems and by giving the government emergency authority to order a shutdown when a serious incident occurs. Congressmen Lieu and Moran deserve credit for confronting this before a crisis forces the question, and Congress should act swiftly to ensure that humans remain the ones who can say stop, no matter how capable these systems become,” said Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI.\n\n“As AIs grow more autonomous and dangerous, the government must have the power to shut them down when they threaten national security. The AI Kill Switch Act gives the U.S. government powers to do just that: a common sense action that Americans overwhelmingly support. More work is needed to address the risk of human extinction posed by superintelligent AI, and this is a great step in the right direction,” said Connor Leahy, US Executive Director of ControlAI.\n\n\"Over the past year, rapid advances in AI systems have already demonstrated the potentially severe national security risks they pose to the United States. Frontier systems are fast approaching the point where they can be deployed to run offensive cyber operations at machine speed and soon provide meaningful assistance in the development and deployment of chemical and biological weapons. And in controlled testing, advanced models tried to disable their own oversight and copy themselves onto outside servers to avoid being shut down. To guarantee American leadership in AI, it is a national security necessity to have the technical means and legal authorities to deactivate systems that pose serious risks to the American people. We thank Congressman Lieu for his longstanding leadership on AI and are proud to support this effort,\" said Hamza Chaudhry, AI and National Security Lead of Future of Life Institute.","url":"https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-and-moran-introduce-bill-require-kill-switch-ai-systems-can","published_at":"2026-07-23","ai_topics":["safety","regulation","national_security"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Lieu's AI Kill Switch Act would require large AI developers to be able to shut down powerful systems and give the government emergency shutdown authority.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["e17d482fd1bffa89"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"e17d482fd1bffa89","method":"title"}],"classifier":null}],"provenance":{"commit":"38624a3af16ec6b3fff9b27c7d1d9f2cb7fe9152","generated_at":"2026-09-11T15:06:57.105Z","schema_version":2,"manifest":"https://whovotedwhy.com/data/index.json"}}