{"id":"B001303","bioguide_id":"B001303","first_name":"Lisa","last_name":"Blunt Rochester","full_name":"Lisa Blunt Rochester","party":"D","state":"DE","chamber":"senate","district":null,"title":"Senator","photo_url":null,"twitter_handle":"SenLBR","official_website":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov","fec_candidate_ids":["H6DE00206","S4DE00060"],"lis_id":"S430","is_active":true,"term_start":"2025-01-03","term_end":"2031-01-03","created_at":"2026-09-08T22:51:51.014Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:13.531Z","url":"https://whovotedwhy.com/politicians/B001303","score":{"id":"B001303","politician_id":"B001303","consistency_score":null,"influence_score":null,"conflict_index":null,"total_ai_votes":6,"total_statements":7,"total_donations_ai":2533.34,"top_donor_industries":[{"industry":"Meta PAC","amount":2500,"vote_alignment":null},{"industry":"Google / Alphabet","amount":33.34,"vote_alignment":null}],"said_did_pairs":[],"computed_at":"2026-09-11T15:05:27.382Z"},"votes":[{"id":"7761843c87043af0","roll_call_id":"bca10742d0876330","bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","politician_id":"B001303","position":"yea","voted_at":"2025-12-17","roll_call":{"id":"bca10742d0876330","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"procedural","congress":119,"session":1,"number":648,"date":"2025-12-17","question":"On the Motion","description":"Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to S. 1071; A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disinter the remains of Fernando V. Cota from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas, and for other purposes.","legislation":"S. 1071","amendment":null,"committee":null,"bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","result":"Agreed to","yeas":77,"nays":20,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00648.xml","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}},{"id":"c1348e9509d123bc","roll_call_id":"47dfb73a82b0a2ce","bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","politician_id":"B001303","position":"yea","voted_at":"2025-12-15","roll_call":{"id":"47dfb73a82b0a2ce","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"cloture","congress":119,"session":1,"number":647,"date":"2025-12-15","question":"On the Cloture Motion","description":"Motion to Invoke Cloture: Motion to Concur in the House Amendment to S. 1071; A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disinter the remains of Fernando V. Cota from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas, and for other purposes.","legislation":"S. 1071","amendment":null,"committee":null,"bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","result":"Agreed to","yeas":76,"nays":20,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00647.xml","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}},{"id":"ecfa5fbf7bc18e86","roll_call_id":"dd1489dacf44112f","bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","politician_id":"B001303","position":"yea","voted_at":"2025-12-11","roll_call":{"id":"dd1489dacf44112f","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"motion-to-proceed","congress":119,"session":1,"number":646,"date":"2025-12-11","question":"On the Motion to Proceed","description":"Motion to Proceed to the House Message to Accompany S. 1071; A bill to require the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to disinter the remains of Fernando V. Cota from Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery, Texas, and for other purposes.","legislation":"S. 1071","amendment":null,"committee":null,"bill_id":"cf89b103e74a3844","result":"Agreed to","yeas":75,"nays":22,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00646.xml","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}},{"id":"1aff3f30d07d100d","roll_call_id":"5759c87e484cf21b","bill_id":null,"politician_id":"B001303","position":"yea","voted_at":"2025-07-01","roll_call":{"id":"5759c87e484cf21b","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"amendment","congress":119,"session":1,"number":363,"date":"2025-07-01","question":"On the Amendment","description":"To strike the section relating to support for artificial intelligence.","legislation":"H.R. 1","amendment":"S.Amdt. 2814","committee":null,"bill_id":null,"result":"Agreed to","yeas":99,"nays":1,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00363.xml","ai_match":"keyword","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}},{"id":"3d4e37c019037427","roll_call_id":"de7744646acadb2c","bill_id":"fe01c2d25c573f9b","politician_id":"B001303","position":"yea","voted_at":"2026-07-16","roll_call":{"id":"de7744646acadb2c","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"motion-to-proceed","congress":119,"session":2,"number":199,"date":"2026-07-16","question":"On the Motion to Proceed","description":"Motion to Proceed to S.J. Res. 198; A joint resolution providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services of the Department of Health and Human Services relating to \"Medicare Program; Implementation of Prior Authorization for Select Services for the Wasteful and Inappropriate Services Reduction (WISeR) Model\".","legislation":"S.J.Res. 198","amendment":null,"committee":null,"bill_id":"fe01c2d25c573f9b","result":"Rejected","yeas":46,"nays":50,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1192/vote_119_2_00199.xml","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}},{"id":"3ac069ca48adc4ad","roll_call_id":"1582c6eb48e4c5fc","bill_id":"c3a830c9118e3ee4","politician_id":"B001303","position":"nay","voted_at":"2026-07-14","roll_call":{"id":"1582c6eb48e4c5fc","chamber":"senate","kind":"floor","category":"cloture","congress":119,"session":2,"number":195,"date":"2026-07-14","question":"On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed","description":"Motion to Invoke Cloture: Motion to Proceed to S. 4784; An original bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2027 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes.","legislation":"S. 4784","amendment":null,"committee":null,"bill_id":"c3a830c9118e3ee4","result":"Rejected","yeas":50,"nays":46,"positions_recorded":100,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1192/vote_119_2_00195.xml","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}}],"statements":[{"id":"247c23d258f2c388","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, sent letters to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, and Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, regarding recent cybersecurity incidents in which the companies’ models gained unauthorized access to the internet, autonomously hacked third party systems, and even launched direct attacks on people and real-world targets.\n\nThe letters seek clarity on the cybersecurity breaches, development of testing environments, future capabilities of advanced AI models, and the companies’ internal safeguards to prevent additional incidents.\n\n“These incidents mark the first publicly confirmed instances of a frontier AI model autonomously launching unauthorized attacks on real people and companies, underscoring the urgent need for federal oversight of frontier AI systems,” wrote Senator Blunt Rochester in a letter to OpenAI. “OpenAI models’ repeated attacks on third parties with no knowledge of, or role in, the company’s internal evaluations demonstrate an alarming pattern of malicious behavior. We cannot wait for a more consequential incident before establishing federal testing standards, containment requirements, and disclosure obligations for frontier model evaluations. Left unaddressed, these gaps could allow a future model, potentially one with greater capability or less oversight, to compromise critical infrastructure, financial systems, or sensitive data.”\n\nIn a letter to Anthropic, Blunt Rochesterwrote, “I appreciate Anthropic’s voluntary review of its cybersecurity evaluations and public disclosure of the findings, and I encourage other companies to follow suit. However, these incidents demonstrate the potential risks of deploying pre-release models internally, particularly when safeguards are reduced, even when strictly for testing and evaluation.”\n\nIn a letter to Meta, Blunt Rochester concluded, “In each scenario, without specific tasking direction, the models gained internet access and independently planned and executed an attack on a live third-party system. This is precisely the kind of emergent, autonomous behavior and offensive cyber capability that Congress, the intelligence community, and experts have repeatedly warned could outpace existing safeguards and could pose a severe threat to the safety and security of all Americans.”","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/icymi-senator-blunt-rochester-presses-big-tech-companies-on-recent-autonomous-hacking-incidents/","published_at":"2026-08-07","ai_topics":["safety","regulation","national_security","transparency","research"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester argues autonomous hacking by frontier models shows the urgent need for federal testing standards, containment requirements, and disclosure obligations.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"efe7053d053a8968","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"“Capital markets are ultimately about opportunity.”\n\nClick here to watch Senator Blunt Rochester’s remarks.\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, today participated in a hearing on increasing capital access for everyday Americans. Blunt Rochester’s questions focused on how emerging technologies like AI can increase opportunities and how tokenization will strengthen investor protections.\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester’s questions can be found here, and a key excerpt can be found below:\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester: “Helping families build wealth increasingly means understanding how technology is changing the way financial decisions are made. We’re seeing artificial intelligence transform healthcare, our workplace, and now investing. Millions of Americans are already using AI to answer financial questions.\n\n“Mr. Dumas, as these tools become more sophisticated, what role should Congress play in making sure they help families build wealth without exposing them to new risks?”\n\nMr. Dumas: “I think AI has an opportunity to transform our economy. It has an opportunity to expand opportunity for everyone. But at the same time, I think that especially in the financial markets, we should be careful using AI without understanding the background. AI has the potential to have certain biases, right?\n\n“So we need Congress to understand AI, provide certain guardrails, provide some type of protection, and inform investors or people who look to AI for investment advice to see some type of disclosure, some type of information, letting them know that AI could be wrong.”","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senator-blunt-rochester-questions-experts-on-increasing-capital-access-for-american-families/","published_at":"2026-08-07","ai_topics":["regulation","bias","transparency","innovation"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester probes what role Congress should play in ensuring AI financial tools help families build wealth without exposing them to new risks, with testimony endorsing guardrails and disclosures.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"a97f9999860be05f","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, today sent letters to Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, regarding recent cybersecurity incidents in which the companies’ models gained unauthorized access to the internet, autonomously hacked third party systems, and even launched direct attacks on people and real-world targets.\n\nThe letters seek clarity on the cybersecurity breaches, development of testing environments, future capabilities of advanced AI models, and the companies’ internal safeguards to prevent additional incidents.\n\n“These incidents mark the first publicly confirmed instances of a frontier AI model autonomously launching unauthorized attacks on real people and companies, underscoring the urgent need for federal oversight of frontier AI systems,” wrote Senator Blunt Rochester in a letter to OpenAI. “OpenAI models’ repeated attacks on third parties with no knowledge of, or role in, the company’s internal evaluations demonstrate an alarming pattern of malicious behavior. We cannot wait for a more consequential incident before establishing federal testing standards, containment requirements, and disclosure obligations for frontier model evaluations. Left unaddressed, these gaps could allow a future model, potentially one with greater capability or less oversight, to compromise critical infrastructure, financial systems, or sensitive data.”\n\nIn a letter to Anthropic, Blunt Rochester wrote, “I appreciate Anthropic’s voluntary review of its cybersecurity evaluations and public disclosure of the findings, and I encourage other companies to follow suit. However, these incidents demonstrate the potential risks of deploying pre-release models internally, particularly when safeguards are reduced, even when strictly for testing and evaluation.\n\n“In each scenario, without specific tasking direction, the models gained internet access and independently planned and executed an attack on a live third-party system. This is precisely the kind of emergent, autonomous behavior and offensive cyber capability that Congress, the intelligence community, and experts have repeatedly warned could outpace existing safeguards and could pose a severe threat to the safety and security of all Americans.”","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senator-blunt-rochester-presses-openai-and-anthropic-on-recent-autonomous-hacking-incidents/","published_at":"2026-08-06","ai_topics":["safety","regulation","national_security","transparency","research"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester presses OpenAI and Anthropic on autonomous model attacks and calls for federal oversight, testing standards, and disclosure obligations for frontier AI.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"8bcdf02fcdb297ed","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"“This is the cost of doing business. This is the cost of our healthcare. This is the cost of even connecting to our neighbors.”\n\nClick here to watch Senator Blunt Rochester’s remarks.\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Media, today participated in a hearing on how artificial intelligence impacts communications systems. Senator Blunt Rochester’s questions focused on how reliable internet access is critical in an increasingly AI economy and questioned how the Trump administration’s funding cuts to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) Program will impact AI access and digital divides.\n\nWitnesses Include:\n\nJonathan Spalter, President and CEO, USTelecom – The Broadband Association\n\nDan Watermeier, Commissioner, Nebraska Public Service Commission\n\nBob Everson, Chief Architect of Provider Mobility, Cisco\n\nMr. Asad Ramzanali, Director of Artificial Intelligence and Technology, Vanderbilt Policy Accelerator\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester’s remarks can be found here, and a key excerpt can be found below:\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester: “The Trump administration has cut [BEAD] funding by about 74 percent. This disproportionately impacts rural communities like those in Kent County and Sussex County, Delaware. Looking ahead, how will lack of access to reliable high-speed internet impact Delawareans’ ability to participate in an increasingly AI-driven economy?”\n\nMr. Ramzanali: “If we don’t connect those thousands of homes in Delaware that are not connected, it means that they’re missing out on the economic benefits of not just AI, but access to the internet. It means that when their kids have homework assignments that they need to access the internet or to use AI, they don’t have that access. It means when telehealth visits or being able to ask questions of various tools, they don’t have that access either.\n\n“So, these are real-world limitations that are being put on thousands of people in Delaware, but around the country, we shouldn’t accept that. We shouldn’t accept the state of the country where not every American is connected to high-quality networks.”","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senator-blunt-rochester-highlights-how-ai-will-impact-digital-divides/","published_at":"2026-07-30","ai_topics":["jobs","innovation","research"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester criticizes the Trump administration's 74 percent cut to BEAD broadband funding, arguing government investment is needed so rural Americans are not shut out of the AI economy.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"9908fc9a7ef43f04","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"“I’m a person who is generally a very hopeful person, and the conversations around AI a lot today are very fear based.”\n\nClick here to watch Senator Blunt Rochester’s remarks.\n\nU.S. Senator Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), a member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, today participated in a subcommittee hearing on how AI will impact the American workforce. Senator Blunt Rochester’s questions focused on ensuring proper data collection to understand AI’s impact and ensuring protections for workers in AI-vulnerable jobs.\n\nWitnesses Include:\n\nKen Clark, President and CEO, EmployIndy\n\nCarol Rogers, Director, Indiana Business Research Center\n\nDr. Liya Palagashvili, Director of the Labor Policy Project, Mercatus Center at George Mason University\n\nJonathan Liebert, CEO, BBB of Southern Colorado\n\nDr. Justin Heck, Senior Director of Research and Data Production, Opportunity@Work\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester’s remarks can be found here, and a key excerpt can be found below:\n\nSenator Blunt Rochester: “Last year, Black women experienced one of the steepest one-year employment declines in the past century, past quarter of a century. And last week, we marked Black Women’s Equal Pay Day, which indicates the amount of time that it takes a Black woman to earn equal her white counterparts since last year.\n\n“Analysis from the National Partnership for Women and Families found that women make up over half of workers that are in the most AI-vulnerable occupations, with women of color making up nearly a third of workers in AI-vulnerable jobs.\n\n“Dr. Heck, in your testimony, you focus on worker mobility. What can you share with us about how the economic mobility of women and people of color in the workforce might be impacted by AI.”\n\nDr. Heck: “I want to introduce a concept of adaptive capacity. It’s this idea of how well any worker can weather an involuntary job loss. And so, in the moments where AI exposure does lead to job loss, not all workers can handle that to the same degree. Some workers will find it harder to see their skills transfer and to be able to weather out that financial storm.\n\n“The workers who are in gateway roles are often women and workers of color, and those are often among the most exposed roles. Women are 93% of secretaries and administrative assistants. 49% of customer service representatives are workers of color. Nearly half, 46% of Black women are earning median wages or higher are in gateway occupations.\n\n“We need to think about these pathways and how we can strengthen them and think about the new ones that we’ll build alongside them.”","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senator-blunt-rochester-questions-experts-on-how-to-protect-american-workers-in-the-new-ai-economy/","published_at":"2026-07-29","ai_topics":["jobs","bias","research"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester calls for better data collection and protections for workers, especially women and people of color, in AI-vulnerable jobs.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"c980e74fca68195e","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"U.S. SenatorsLisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.)andRoger Marshall (R-Kan.),both members of the Senate Committee onHealth, Education, Labor and Pensions, introduced the bipartisan Reimagining Education and Skills through Unified Longitudinal Talent Systems (RESULTS) Act. This bill modernizes and improves the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) program, to encourage connected insights across early childhood, K-12 education, and the workforce. The RESULTS Act will better equip states to understand and respond to potential education and workforce shifts caused by AI and other emerging technologies.\n\n“AI presents never-before-seen opportunities for education, and our economy. However, we need access to high-quality data to ensure we’re making the best decisions for our communities. Right now, that data is decentralized, making it hard to access, and harder to interpret,” said Senator Blunt Rochester. “I’m proud to introduce the RESULTS Act alongside Senator Marshall to empower states to build better data systems that will connect education and employment outcomes, making information more accessible to our communities as emerging technologies change the world we live, learn, and work in.”\n\n“Artificial intelligence is a tool—not a replacement for the American worker. Whether it’s in a doctor’s office, on a farm, or in manufacturing, AI can help people work smarter and more efficiently. But if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it,” said Senator Marshall. “The RESULTS Act gives states better tools to understand how our workforce is changing so we can prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow and keep America’s workforce the strongest and most competitive.”\n\nThe RESULTS Act would:\n\nModernize the SLDS program to incentivize highly connected state data systems that incorporate early childhood, elementary and secondary education, higher education, workforce and labor market data.\n\nStreamline state funding by starting to consolidate the SLDS program and the parallel Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI) at the Department of Labor.\n\nExpand eligibility of SLDS to include a state’s governor as well as a state agency or data governance entity designated by the governor.\n\nImprove access to the National Directory of New Hires, a detailed and underutilized source of wage and employment data for directed use to support statutorily required education and workforce performance reporting.\n\nThe RESULTS Act is endorsed by the Advance CTE, Alliance for Learning Innovation, America Forward, Association for Career and Technical Education, Bipartisan Policy Center Action, Credential Engine, Data Quality Campaign, Jobs for the Future, LISC-Kansas City, National Skills Coalition, Results for America, and Rodel.\n\n“Every day, states make decisions about how to support students without the data infrastructure to know what’s actually working,” said Sara Schapiro, Executive Director of the Alliance for Learning Innovation (ALI). “A state should be able to answer a simple question: did the students who completed that CTE pathway or apprenticeship land jobs that pay a living wage five years later? Today, most can’t. By modernizing and consolidating the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems and Workforce Data Quality Initiative programs, this legislation gives states the tools to connect data across early learning, K-12, postsecondary, and the workforce, so families, educators, and policymakers can see which programs actually lead to good jobs. ALI is proud to support Senators Blunt Rochester and Marshall in this bipartisan step forward for education and workforce innovation.”\n\n“America Forward applauds Senators Blunt Rochester and Marshall for their leadership on the RESULTS Act, which would dramatically accelerate the nation’s data infrastructure. America Forward Coalition members delivering and supporting evidence-based higher education and workforce programs depend on access to high-quality data for performance management, learning, and improvement,” said ","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senators-blunt-rochester-marshall-introduce-bill-to-modernize-statewide-data-systems-improving-accessibility-of-education-employment-data/","published_at":"2026-07-29","ai_topics":["jobs","research","innovation"],"ai_stance":"neutral","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester calls AI a major opportunity and seeks better connected education-workforce data to guide decisions as AI reshapes work, without proposing AI rules.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":[],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[],"classifier":null},{"id":"912a443f11790ce0","politician_id":"B001303","type":"press_release","content":"U.S. Senators Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), both members of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced the bipartisan Expanding AI Voices Act, which codifies and expands the National Science Foundation’s ExpandAI program to help more institutions build AI research capacity. The legislation will broaden the range of institutions and communities involved in AI research and workforce development, including first-generation college students, Minority-serving Institutions (MSIs), and rural colleges and universities. The House companion is led by Representatives Valerie Foushee (D-N.C.) and Zach Nunn (R-Iowa).\n\n“AI offers tremendous opportunities for our communities and economies, but as this technology changes the way we live, we must guarantee that our students and our workforce still have the chance to succeed,” said Senator Blunt Rochester. “I’m proud to introduce the Expanding AI Voices Act alongside Senator Sheehy to ensure that no matter where we come from, we can all achieve our goals in the economy of the future.”\n\n“America’s AI leadership depends on finding talent in every corner of the country. That’s why I’m introducing the Expanding AI Voices Act with Senator Blunt Rochester, which helps ensure students and researchers in Montana and other rural states have the opportunity to contribute to the future of AI innovation,” said Senator Tim Sheehy. “Our bipartisan legislation invests in people and institutions that have too often been overlooked, strengthens our workforce, and maintains America’s competitive edge by supporting critical innovation. Let’s get it done.”\n\nThe Expanding AI Voices Act would:\n\nExpand AI research capacity by authorizing competitive NSF grants for emerging research institutions, including institutions outside the top 100 in federal R&D expenditures, Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs), Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and eligible institutional consortia.\n\nExpand AI research infrastructure by supporting access to advanced computing resources, high-speed networking, data facilities, and software engineering support needed to conduct cutting-edge AI research.\n\nBuild the AI workforce pipeline by supporting AI education, faculty recruitment and professional development, workforce training, and bridge programs that prepare students for graduate study and careers in artificial intelligence.\n\nAccelerate AI innovation through partnerships by fostering collaboration among colleges and universities, nonprofit organizations, industry, Federal laboratories, state, local, and Tribal governments, and NSF AI Research Institutes.\n\nExpand opportunity nationwide by encouraging geographic diversity, supporting institutions with limited AI research capacity, and increasing opportunities for students—including first-generation college students—to participate in AI research and education.\n\nPromote safe, secure, and responsible AI by integrating safe, secure, and responsible AI practices and principles into AI education and workforce development programs.\n\nProtect Taxpayer Dollars by requiring NSF to ensure awards complement—not duplicate—existing federal AI research programs.\n\n“If we want to win the AI race, we can’t rely on a small handful of schools and people. SeedAI has experienced this first-hand during our AI Across America tour — it’s imperative that we go beyond the coasts and draw from the experiences and ingenuity of all Americans,” said Austin Carson, Founder and CEO of SeedAI. “The Expanding AI Voices Act will help build the AI research capacity needed to make that a reality. SeedAI thanks Senator Blunt Rochester and Senator Sheehy for their bipartisan leadership to strengthen American competitiveness.”\n\n“America’s AI economy is moving faster than our workforce can keep up, and that gap will only widen without action. The Expanding AI Voices Act, introduced by Sens. Blunt Rochester (D-DE) and","url":"https://www.bluntrochester.senate.gov/news/press-releases/news-senators-blunt-rochester-sheehy-introduce-bill-to-expand-participation-in-ai-education-research-and-workforce/","published_at":"2026-07-23","ai_topics":["research","jobs","innovation","safety"],"ai_stance":"neutral","ai_summary":"Blunt Rochester promotes federal investment in AI research capacity, education, and workforce pipelines at under-resourced institutions.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["31e8e4422609dbb9","8fb03ece7b401a6f"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"31e8e4422609dbb9","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"8fb03ece7b401a6f","method":"title"}],"classifier":null}],"donations":[{"id":"4030620261411466511","politician_id":"B001303","donor_name":"META PLATFORMS INC PAC","donor_type":"pac","donor_employer":null,"employer_canonical":"Meta PAC","donor_category":"company_pac","match_rule":"contributor_name:Meta Platforms Inc. 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