Adam Schiff is a United States Senator from California (Democrat), elected to the Senate in 2024 after more than two decades in the US House of Representatives. In the 119th Congress he has been among the more active Democratic senators on AI legislation, sponsoring the HALO Act on military autonomous weapons, co-leading the bipartisan LIFT AI Act on K-12 AI literacy, and co-sponsoring the bipartisan CHATBOT Act on parental controls for AI chatbots.
Background
Schiff was born in Framingham, Massachusetts, graduated from Stanford University and Harvard Law School, and served as a federal prosecutor in the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles for almost six years, where he prosecuted Richard Miller, the first FBI agent indicted for spying for Russia. He was elected to the California State Senate in 1996 and to the US House of Representatives in 2000, where he served on the Judiciary, Foreign Affairs, and Appropriations committees, chaired the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and served on the January 6th Select Committee. He led the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump and served as Lead Impeachment Manager in the first Senate impeachment trial. In 2024 he was elected to the United States Senate from California. (Source: schiff.senate.gov)
AI legislation
HALO Act (autonomous weapons)
On June 8, 2026 Schiff introduced the Human Authority in Lethal Operations Act (HALO Act), which would require the Department of Defense to keep autonomous and semi-autonomous weapon systems under meaningful human control, designate accountable commanders for AI-enabled engagements, confine such systems to predefined geographies, target sets, and timeframes, and explicitly bar removing humans from the nuclear decision chain (Sources: thedebrief.org, insideaipolicy.com). The bill would also prohibit covered systems from inferring a person's religion, race, political identity, or emotional state, and would restrict purchases of Americans' data from brokers. It followed similar measures from Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Elissa Slotkin and bills introduced days earlier by Sen. Mark Kelly, setting up a possible fight over the FY2027 National Defense Authorization Act.
FY27 NDAA antitrust-exemption amendment
Schiff proposed an amendment to the FY2027 defense authorization bill, disclosed July 9, 2026, that would let entities share information and coordinate to delay AI model releases without federal antitrust liability, provided they first disclose plans to the relevant agencies (Source: insideaipolicy.com).
LIFT AI Act (AI literacy)
On May 4, 2026 Schiff and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) introduced the Literacy in Future Technologies Artificial Intelligence Act (LIFT AI Act) (S. 4414), a bipartisan bill authorizing the National Science Foundation director to award merit-reviewed competitive grants for K-12 AI-literacy curricula, instructional materials, teacher professional development, and evaluation methods (Sources: schiff.senate.gov, congress.gov). OpenAI, Google, and Microsoft publicly endorsed the bill (Source: 404media.co).
CHATBOT Act (chatbots and minors)
Schiff is a co-sponsor of the CHATBOT Act, the bipartisan Senate bill introduced April 29, 2026 by Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Brian Schatz (D-HI), John Curtis (R-UT), and Schiff that would let parents control how children interact with AI chatbots and disable manipulative features.
Relationships
- related: Human Authority in Lethal Operations Act (HALO Act) — sponsor.
- related: LIFT AI Act (Literacy in Future Technologies Artificial Intelligence Act) — co-lead sponsor with Sen. Mike Rounds.
- related: CHATBOT Act (Cruz–Schatz–Curtis–Schiff, April 2026) — co-sponsor.
- related: Ted Cruz — CHATBOT Act co-sponsor.
- related: AI Literacy — the LIFT AI Act is the most direct federal legislative vehicle for K-12 AI literacy.
- related: FY27 National Defense Authorization Act (Chairman's Mark) — the HALO Act's likely legislative vehicle fight.