According to a leading House Democrat, there is still an opportunity to set a regulatory approach to artificial intelligence in Congress.
Speaking at the Hill Nation Summit on July 16, 2025, Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA-36) suggested that President’s failure to pass a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation as part of the big tax and budget reconciliation legislation a couple of weeks ago (which did include a massive tax change for market research incentives and a provision sought by the Insights Association to empower the insights industry’s workforce with more flexible and affordable approaches to training) still means that “we should look to Congress” for such regulation.
Even if Democrats missed the chance to act when Congress was under divided control in 2023-24, Lieu said that opportunities to regulate and legislate on AI were still within research. “It has only been a little over two years since OpenAI shocked the world… it was hard at the very beginning to understand” what was happening and what could happen. Now, “in the age of AI agents… it doesn’t just respond to you in text, you can have it go do things in the world. … As this continues, imagine a billion people in the world having agents do things for them in the real world.” He called it both amazing and frightening.
On the ancillary issue of energy requirements for AI, Lieu noted that, “AI data centers” can be “built anywhere… so it is not really a smart approach to not have them built here” for energy concerns. “We have to build smartly” and “permitting reform” will make it easier, he said. “We need to focus on renewable energies… not just for AI data centers,” but that will be key.
Finally, asked about AI’s role in surveillance, Rep. Lieu pointed out that it is a tool with “27 million uses,” and “in many of them, it will make whatever we do as human beings more efficient. … There will also be use cases that can harm people,” which is why he said we need guardrails for it. He hopes for Congress to take legislative action to provide those protections.
About the Author
Based in Washington, DC, Howard is the Insights Association's lobbyist for the marketing research and data analytics industry, focusing primarily on consumer privacy and data security, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), tort reform, and the funding and integrity of the decennial Census and the American Community Survey (ACS).
Howard has more than two decades of public policy experience. Before the Insights Association, he worked in Congress as senior legislative staffer for then-Representatives Christopher Cox (CA-48) and Cliff Stearns (FL-06). He also served more than four years with a science policy think tank, working to improve the understanding of scientific and social research and methodology among journalists and policymakers.
Howard is also co-director of The Census Project, a 900+ member coalition in support of a fair and accurate Census and ACS.
He has also served previously on the Board of Directors for the National Institute for Lobbying and Ethics and and the Association of Government Relations Professionals.
Howard has an MA International Relations from the University of Essex in England and a BA Honors Political Studies from Trent University in Canada, and has obtained the Certified Association Executive (CAE), Professional Lobbying Certificate (PLC) and the Public Policy Certificate (PPC).
When not running advocacy for the Insights Association, Howard enjoys hockey, NFL football, sci-fi and horror movies, playing with his dog, and spending time with family and friends.