From AI regulations to privacy laws, here’s how Republican Congress control could shape key tech issues in 2025.
When it comes to tech policy, the next Congress has a seemingly endless to-do list. It includes hashing out a deal on an elusive federal privacy law, coalescing on how to address booming products driven by artificial intelligence, and countering harms on social media.
With Republicans retaking the Senate and seemingly on track to retain the House, the party may largely be able to set the tone in those legislative negotiations. Here’s what that could look like.
An Early Leg Up in the AI debate
Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-New York) last year kicked off a process to educate senators about AI tools and begin sketching out a regulatory approach while House lawmakers launched a new bipartisan task force to craft recommendations on the issue.
But neither has translated into any significant new laws, leaving much unfinished work for Congress.
Schumer and a bipartisan gang of lawmakers in May unveiled a road map that called for billions in new funding for AI research and development and urged key Senate committees to develop legislation tackling potential harms posed by the tools.
Despite the bipartisan support, Senate Republicans are likely to want to put their stamp on the plans moving forward, particularly given President-elect Donald Trump’s plans to repeal President Joe Biden’s executive order on AI once he retakes office.
Joel Thayer, president of the Digital Progress Institute nonprofit, said Republicans will probably push for more “pro-market” AI proposals that emphasize countering Chinese technologies.
“China and AI will always be a natural fit for policy,” said Thayer, who clerked under former Federal Trade Commission acting chairwoman Maureen Ohlhausen, a Republican.
A Reset on Child Online Safety?
After the Senate overwhelmingly passed a pair of measures to expand privacy and safety protections for children online, House lawmakers are expected to make an end-of-year push to get the bill over the finish line in the lower chamber. But their odds for success are steep given that House Republican leadership has opposed the Senate proposals.
If proponents of the bills fail to convert on their push, the new GOP-led Senate may need to go back to the drawing board on how to win over the House next year.
Still, there is so much momentum behind the issue that additional attempts to pass child safety guardrails are all but guaranteed, said Evan Swarztrauber, a political adviser who served under Republican Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai. “Having a unified government might make it easier to get something done,” he said.
