Caleb Knapp, senior policy manager at The Alliance for Secure AI, said bipartisanship on the issue will likely be hard to come by on Capitol Hill after the Trump framework.
“I anticipate this will rally up and solidify the Dem base even more than already,” Knapp said.
K Street’s smart money is moving to Capitol Hill from the White House in the next round of artificial intelligence lobbying efforts.
After spending more than a year focusing on the White House, lobbyists working to shape AI policy say they will turn more to lawmakers tasked with implementing—or thwarting—the Trump administration’s framework it unveiled last week.
“It does shift the focus from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. down the street to the Capitol,” said Greta Joynes, a former Hill GOP aide who chairs the telecommunications and technology practice at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck. It’s “expanded the scope of engagement” on AI lobbying, she added.
More hearings and markups will dominate the congressional calendar with plenty of fights within and between the parties on federal preemption for AI rules, children’s safety, and other matters. Lobbying on AI was already a fast-growing area for K Street, and the Trump framework is poised to supercharge it.
The potential power shifts ahead following the midterm elections also mean congressional Democrats are taking on a more prominent role in formulating AI rules and elevating lobbyists with ties to the party.
“Almost all of the energy last year was on the administration,” said Reggie Babin, a senior counsel at the firm Akin and a former chief counsel to Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “In recent months, there’s been a renewed focus on Congress, especially with the anticipation of change in power with the midterms.”
Congress has a lot of work to do, he said, to figure out how much it can accomplish on these issues before the end of the year.
“There is a lot of hunger to help advance a legislative agenda,” Babin said. “This is seen as an invitation to engage the Congress in full to help shape the development of legislation. It’s more of a return to traditional Hill lobbying.”
New Business
Lobbying on AI-related matters peaked in last year’s fourth quarter, a Bloomberg Government analysis of lobbying disclosures found.
The topic shows no signs of slowing this year, with lobbying disclosures showing dozens of new clients tapping lobbyists.
Palantir Technologies Inc. recently hired Democratic lobbyists from the bipartisan Ferox Strategies. Vise Technologies, which uses AI in financial advising, retained Thorn Run Partners. Invariant signed on to lobby on AI matters for the venture capital firm Lightspeed Management Company LLC.
The AI debate in Washington is expected to get so hot that even relative newcomers in the space are seeking the help of K Street lobbyists to have a larger voice in Congress.
The generative chatbot company Character.ai, founded in 2021 by former Google developers, hired Hogan Lovells. The AI cybersecurity startup HiddenLayer Inc. is now working with Holland & Knight.
And an upstart AI policy nonprofit, Encode AI Corp. hired HillNorth LLC to help advance its agenda.
Industry Fights
Clients from all sectors have a stake in the AI debate: tech players, model developers, plus pharmaceutical, energy, health care, and defense interests. They don’t all agree, either.
“From a lobbying perspective, that means this is about to get more crowded, not less,” said Joseph Hoefer, chief AI officer at Monument Advocacy, whose clients include Waymo.
“Now that this is moving out of the abstract and into actual policy design, you’re going to start to see real lines drawn and conflicts emerge across industries,” Hoefer said.
“The details matter here, and even defining where responsibility sits within that stack is going to be a complicated and contested exercise,” he added. “That leaves a lot of room for advocacy, because how those lines get drawn will have real implications for who bears the risk, who captures the value, and how this market ultimately develops.”
Partisan dividing lines are also taking shape, especially as the midterm elections approach.
Caleb Knapp, senior policy manager at The Alliance for Secure AI, said bipartisanship on the issue will likely be hard to come by on Capitol Hill after the Trump framework.
“I anticipate this will rally up and solidify the Dem base even more than already,” Knapp said.
Advocates expect a bill from Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) as Republicans are weighing reconciliation as a potential legislative vehicle for AI matters. Meanwhile, Democrats are working on their proposals with the next Congress in mind.
“That, with the ticking legislative time frame, would make bipartisanship even harder,” Knapp said.
Taking congressional efforts from an esoteric exercise to one that requires buy-in from a broader group, with the midterms on the horizon, will add to the complexity, said Democratic lobbyist Arshi Siddiqui, founder of Bellwether Government Affairs whose recent clients include Comcast Corp. and Micron Technology Inc.
“By definition, that will call for a more holistic approach to AI lobbying because the landmines are growing, not shrinking,” she said.