House AI Task Force recommends sector-specific regs in final report

Regulation by sector and an incremental approach to crafting policy are two key philosophies to regulating artificial intelligence technologies defining the final version of the House AI Task Force’s bipartisan report.

Unveiled on Tuesday, the report dives into the best practices for deploying and governing AI systems across a range of applications. As Task Force Co-Chair Jay Obernolte, R-Calif., stated during a press conference, the report is intended to serve as future guidance for lawmakers working to regulate evolving AI systems. 

“What we’re recommending in this task force report is that Congress balances the very important job of mitigating the potential harms of artificial intelligence and providing Americans with the protections that they deserve against some of the malicious use of AI with the need to ensure that America remains the place where cutting edge artificial intelligence is developed and deployed,” Obernolte said.

Rather than adopt blanket technical regulations, he specified that the goal is to focus on regulating outcomes and mitigating harms as the technology itself continues to grow. He noted the “contextual risks” inherent to AI and said the report focuses on filling gaps that existing regulations and regulatory bodies do not oversee. He and other task force members at the press conference emphasized the need for a sector-specific approach to regulations, rather than universal bureaucracies and licensing regimes. 

“We think it would be foolish to assume that we know enough about AI to pass one big bill next month and be done with the job of AI regulation,” he said. “We think we need to divide that job into lots of different bite-sized pieces, and that’s what we’ve done.”

All seven principles that guide specific recommendations across sectors focus on identifying AI issue novelty; promoting AI innovation; protecting against AI risks and harms; empowering government with AI; affirming the use of a sector-specific regulatory structure; taking an incremental approach; and keeping humans at the center of AI policy discussions. 

These inform the specific approaches the task force recommended to individual sectors, including education and workforce, healthcare, financial services, agriculture and more. Guidance regarding data privacy issues, digital identity verification and content copyright were also included in the report. 

Keeping the U.S. regulatory landscape private sector-friendly was also a factor that influenced the report, chiefly to ensure continued American leadership in AI innovation.

“There’s a lot of fear and mistrust among investors about the regulatory environment for AI,” Obernolte said, adding that the bipartisan effort that went into the report is intended to inspire confidence in venture capital and private industry. Leadership from major companies — such as Sam Altman from OpenAI and Jack Clark from Anthropic — also offered perspectives on the report while it was being drafted. 

Industry voices have reacted positively to the contents of the task force’s document. 

“This report stands out for its clarity and practicality. It offers a clear, actionable blueprint for how Congress can put forth a unified U.S. vision for AI governance — one that balances innovation with safeguards and provides a credible framework lawmakers can stand behind,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation Director Daniel Castro said in a statement to Nextgov/FCW. “Its strength lies in its clarity about what to regulate, who should regulate it, and how to do so effectively.”

The bipartisan nature of the report was also a component to harmonizing future regulatory efforts. The release of the report comes ahead of the incoming Trump administration, where the posture toward AI policy is opaque aside from promises to repeal President Joe Biden’s sweeping AI executive order. That guidance set the tone for agencies’ inventories and protocols surrounding AI usage. 

“I hope that this report also shows that, despite what this past election may have led us to believe, we can find common ground and bipartisan agreement, especially on big, complicated and rapidly evolving priorities like AI,” Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., said during the press conference.