At least two branches of government are committed to using artificial intelligence

Tom Temin And Loren, I assume there’s also conference activity on the AI ​​front that you’re reporting on.

Loren Duggan Yes, we have been. The leaders, as they often do, even when the chambers are not meeting, talk about what they want to do at the end of the year. And one thing they’re talking about is an artificial intelligence package that might piggyback on something else, but it really focuses on R&D aspects of AI and also guidelines for using the technology. This has been talked about all year and there’s been working groups and hearings and they’ve brought in industry players to talk about it, but we haven’t really seen much in terms of any real legislation around this. So if they could get to a bicameral legislature, it would now have to be a bipartisan agreement. That could be something we see happen at the end of the year. There’s clearly a lot of interest in AI, as you said, with the White House plan. But this would be a way for the current Congress to stamp this out before the end of the year.

Tom Temin And when you think about AI, there are facilities that the government would like for the industry and for the chip industry and so on. And I think they would also keep an eye on the oversight capacity of how federal agencies are deploying AI, and that branches out into a lot of different things. Do you feel like Congress is looking at both sides?

Loren Duggan Yeah, I don’t know if this will cover the deepest parts of the regulations, but are there certainly areas of research and development that they can put some money behind or put some guidelines in place around maybe some of the safe and ethical uses, things that the administration also addressed this. But those are some of the big questions. How do you leverage this technology, but not deploy it in a way that could be detrimental to people’s jobs or things like that? There are many areas that they have talked about. So if they want to get something done, it may be easiest to agree first, and other things may be rejected. But we’ll have to see what they can do when they come back and what form that might take.

Tom Temin And who’s talking about it on the Hill? Is this something dark for a low-ranking member or is the leadership thinking about it?

Loren Duggan This is really at the leadership level. So the top level, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), a Democrat, has been leading the way on this. He’s one of the key players on their working group and he’s spoken with (Sen.) Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), as we understand it, with both Chairman Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.) . .Y.) in the House of Representatives. So this is quite high and maybe the details are being worked out by other people. But if it is going to happen, leadership will likely give the initiative and pressure to leadership the momentum it needs.

Tom Temin Yes. So maybe they’re both hoping that artificial intelligence will win the next election and something different from the candidates everyone here is watching these days. And in the meantime, the White House had its vision on artificial intelligence, placing it in the sphere of national security.

Loren Duggan That’s right. They have drawn up a strategy for the military use of AI. And this is something that the Biden administration will take to a broader meeting next month. And what’s important here is the agencies, they want to focus on this and some of the safeguards they want to put around it. So you know, if the military, if it’s going to use AI, how they’re going to track or identify individuals for the military or law enforcement, determine someone’s immigration classification. Very sensitive matters when it comes to how the military and other agencies use AI. The future of this is, of course, a proposal of the Biden administration. Either way, on November 5th you will either have a Trump administration or a Harris administration. Maybe the Harris administration would bring this up, but under Donald Trump we could see changes in that. But it’s a pretty important document. And it will certainly be very important to come to global conversations with this kind of perspective.

Tom Temin Yes, it says from the White House, their summary says that this memo directs the US government to work with allies and partners to establish a stable, accountable and rights-respecting governance framework. So it looks like they want to take it abroad.

Loren Duggan Yes, they do. And they want to, as you said, work with allies because there are clearly adversaries here and we want to make sure that. I think they also said that we need to be faster at deploying AI than our adversaries and make sure that we deter theft and fend off opportunities to steal things that US industry is doing to advance artificial intelligence. And similarly, it’s telling the military’s acquisition staff to talk to industry, talk to defense companies, talk to investors, even about what to think about when it comes to AI capabilities, and build that into the how the government could acquire it. So this is quite a broad document that could be very important for the way the government works in this area.

Tom Temin We speak with Loren Duggan. He is deputy news director in Bloomberg’s administration. And in the meantime it is a bit dark and deserted on the Hill, but at the same time not.

Loren Duggan It isn’t; The staff are still there, unless perhaps they have taken leave and gone to campaign for their boss or for the party somewhere in the country. But attention should soon be paid to what happens after the November 5 elections, because the lame duck session starts on November 12, just a week later. And there are a lot of things they could do besides AI, like government funding, which needs to be resolved before December 20th. Defense permission. Farm Bill. Lots of issues unaddressed so far this year that a lame duck Congress may have to grapple with before they get out the door.

Tom Temin With all these budget discussions, people’s desire to get back to this waxes and wanes, depending on which side they think will win the election, what kind of numbers go into the calculation, I think.

Loren Duggan Right. Scenario planning. When you talk to people in town, a lot of people do that because they’re trying to figure out, okay, what if this combination wins or that combination wins? So when it comes to government funding, as we know, the initial offer from Republicans in the House of Representatives was to push this to next year. The version they signed into law to provide emergency funding only runs through December 20. If there is a Trump victory on November 5, or the days after, you might see pressure to postpone this until next year and let him handle it, especially if Republicans hold one or both houses. If the Democrats win some combination of that, there could be other pressure to get this done and not leave it until next year, because a new Congress and a new majority may not want to have the first order of business that the entire government finances, so the outcome will really say a lot about what they get done in the lame duck in terms of government financing.

Tom Temin And since there’s going to be another president, it’s generally unlikely, isn’t it, that a new government will have much say in the budget it gets for the year it comes into power anyway, because a large part of the government is already cast. They argue around the edges.

Loren Duggan So they may have the first question: what is the government funding this year if it is not resolved when they are sworn in on January 20th. But then some work has already been done by the administration to lay the groundwork and start the process of providing some figures (the Office of Management and Budget). But you will want to make a mark. Budget requests therefore always come too late when there is a new president. That will undoubtedly be the case again next year, whether it is Harris or Trump. But we will see how long it takes for them to gain a foothold and really impose their vision of government on the budget, which is itself in some sense a government vision.

Tom Temin Certainly. It’s what they say: a budget is, in a sense, an expression of values. But given the state of the government’s handling of budgets, things for 2026 are already well in the works. And as you point out, the ’26 proposal would normally come out about a month after the inauguration. In this case, it is very unlikely that this will happen regardless of who gets the White House.

Loren Duggan Correct. And even the 25 budget requests came out in March instead of February. So that was late in a fairly normal year. And typical now means that the budget is late anyway, perhaps it will go into the next calendar year. So work is being done. Then again, a new administration may not want to copy everything their predecessor did. So that could also slow it down. And having a baseline, having a fiscal 2025 number, is often important to know. We want to show in which direction we allow the government to grow or shrink, so that that can also play a role.

Tom Temin And then there’s the factor that whichever side ends up in the White House, there will be wholesale replacements of all appointed officials. And that also requires a lot of bandwidth from the senators, right?

Loren Duggan It does. And it may depend on what the party of the White House is and what the party of the Senate is. And if they are different, that will slow it down even more. But making your mark on a new government is important. And even if Vice President Harris were to become president, not everyone would stick around. Maybe some people would continue working. But there are already vacancies in a few departments. We have an Acting Secretary of Labor and an Acting Secretary (Housing and Urban Development). Will there be a push to replace them and what kind of Senate would she face if she wins? If it’s a Republican Senate, it may be harder to get some of its choices through. So it could take quite some time in the Senate to confirm all those nominees.

Tom Temin Although if she does get in, some Cabinet members may remain out of the Biden administration just for the sake of broad continuity until the new person is confirmed.

Loren Duggan Absolutely, they won’t feel the same pressure to leave immediately, perhaps if there is a party change where people often leave immediately.

Tom Temin Yes, if Trump gets in there, I’m sure Secretary of State Antony Blinken, for example, won’t stick around for long, if at all.

Loren Duggan I do think that many of them will leave on January 19, January 20, most likely in that case.