AI Roadmap Released, Senators Urge Quick Action

The bipartisan Senate AI Working Group released a roadmap for artificial intelligence (AI) policy in the United States, calling for at least $32 billion in emergency federal spending for AI-related research.

The working group, consisting of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), and Senator Todd Young (R-IN), was formed last year. It held months of discussions with both public and private sector leaders as well as nine AI-focused forums for all senators.

The goal is to provide a roadmap to various senate committees, who will then craft AI-related legislation in their specific areas. 

“Our Policy Roadmap for AI is the first, most comprehensive, most bipartisan, and most forward-thinking report on AI regulation ever produced by Congress. Our Roadmap lays out a panoply of policy priorities and guardrails that our group believes merit bipartisan consideration this Congress and beyond,” said Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY).

“I look forward to seeing how my colleagues use their policy expertise in each committee to address these issues through regular order. We have a real opportunity to shape its future, and we need to embrace this challenge with open arms,” said Senator Rounds (R-SD).

The four Senators in the group all noted the urgency of getting to work.

“We have the lead at this moment in time on this issue, and it will define the relationship between the United States and our allies and other competing powers in the world for a long time to come,” said Senator Heinrich (D-NM).

Funding

The 33-page roadmap calls for at least $32 billion in spending over the next three years for AI research and development. It encourages the Senate Appropriations Committee to work with relevant committees to develop emergency appropriations language. Priority areas of funding include cross-government AI research and development, AI efforts at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and updates to the federal government’s IT infrastructure. 

Senate committees are urged to develop bills to leverage public-private partnerships, support best practices, and work with agencies to increase access to AI testing tools.

Workforce

The roadmap endorses legislation (S. 2138) that authorizes the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to record the effect of automation on the workforce and measure trends.

It aims to ensure that stakeholders are consulted as AI is developed and deployed to reduce impact on the workforce, as well as recommending legislation on training and upskilling workers.

It also calls on the federal government to upskill existing federal employees and explore opportunities to recruit and retain AI talent in the federal government.

AI Use Cases

On AI usage, the roadmap urges committees to work on legislation to ensure that financial service providers use accurate and representative data in AI models.

It calls on committees to advance standards for using AI in critical infrastructure, examine the risks of using AI in the housing sector, and to develop legislation to protect children from potential harm online.

On health, the roadmap calls for the implementation of guardrails and safety measures to protect patients. It supports the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in developing AI technologies.

Election Bills Move Forward

Meanwhile, some AI legislation is already moving forward.

The Senate Rules Committee advanced three bills related to protecting elections from the misuse of AI, including one to ban deceptive AI content used to influence federal elections, and one to create voluntary guidelines for state election offices to follow.

Given the tense election year, Senator Schumer said the bills are among the chamber’s “highest priorities.”

However, their fate is uncertain as the elections bills did not receive any Republican support.

Republicans said the legislation could violate free speech and could overstep states that are already acting on the issue.

Source: https://www.cbo.gov/system/files/2024-04/59970-Compensation.pdf

Data sources: Congressional Budget Office; Census Bureau, the Current Population Survey, from IPUMS-USA; Office of Personnel Management; Bureau of Labor Statistics. See www.cbo.gov/publication/59970#data

·         Federal employees with high school diplomas earned 40 percent more in total compensation than private sector counterparts in 2022, down from 47 percent in the 2015 report.

·         Federal employees with bachelor’s degrees earned five percent more than 2022, down from 21 percent in 2015.

·         Professional or doctorate holders earned 22 percent less. That gap was just 18 percent in 2015.

It’s important to note that the report does not account for the 4.6 percent federal worker pay raise in 2023 and the 5.2 percent federal worker pay raise in January. Also not included: the up to 30 percent pay raises received by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employees starting last July, that brought TSA employees in line with General Schedule (GS) employees.

Differences with Federal Salary Council

The report contrasts with the Federal Salary Council, which found that federal workers made an average of 27 percent less than private sector workers in 2023, widening the federal pay gap to 24 percent. The Federal Salary Council report only measures wages. 

The reports are important because the numbers are used to negotiate raises for federal employees in Congress, absent an alternative pay plan offered by the president. Democrats prefer the Federal Salary Council, while conservatives usually turn to the CBO report.

Democrats Propose a Larger Raise

Many Democratic lawmakers, including Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA), were upset with President Biden when he proposed a two percent raise for federal employees in the 2025 budget, noting that is well below in the inflation rate.

In response to questions from Rep. Connolly at a House Oversight Hearing, Office of Management (OMB) Deputy Director Jason Miller said, “Our fiscal 2025 budget had to comply with fiscal responsibility acts, and we took that very seriously. We also wanted to make sure our pay policy decisions weren’t having negative impacts on near-term service levels. We’re currently several months into implementing the most recent increase, which is why we recommended the 2% pay increase as part of the fiscal 2025 budget.”

Earlier this year, Representative Connolly and Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) proposed legislation to give federal employees a 7.4 percent raise in 2025.