Josh Gottheimer is a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives for New Jersey's 5th congressional district. His office describes him as co-chair of the House AI Commission and a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, and he is one of three leaders of the House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy with Ted Lieu and Valerie Foushee (Source: gottheimer.house.gov; rollcall.com). In 2026 he sponsored or co-sponsored a series of AI bills on agent security, pre-deployment testing, synthetic media and AI in schools.
AI legislation
| Bill | Date | Summary | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act (H.R. 4801, with Chairman French Hill, Reps. Richie Torres and Bryan Steil, and Sens. Mike Rounds, Andy Kim, Thom Tillis and Martin Heinrich) | Introduced July 30, 2025 | Regulatory sandboxes for AI test projects at federal financial regulatory agencies; Gottheimer said it "will allow for experimentation while putting guardrails in place to strengthen consumer protections" | (Source: financialservices.house.gov) |
| Spot the Fakes Act (with Reps. Tom Kean and Sam Liccardo) | Introduced July 2, 2026 | Would direct the FTC and NIST to set rules for labeling AI-generated content in metadata | (Source: nextgov.com) |
| Stop Rogue AI Act | Introduced September 2026 | Directs NIST to develop AI-agent discovery and security standards and the FAR Council to propose procurement revisions | Stop Rogue AI Act — bill text as introduced (119th Congress) |
| AI LABS Act (H.R. 10315, with Rep. Jay Obernolte) | Announced September 4, introduced September 8, 2026 | Announced as Education Department grants for dedicated AI labs in K–12 schools, part of his "Back-to-School Agenda on AI and Screen Time in K-12 Education"; the introduced text provides competitive grants to States for student AI curricula and teacher professional education, plus a departmental study; see AI in Education | H.R. 10315 — AI LABS Act (bill text); (Source: nextgov.com; gottheimer.house.gov) |
| American AI Security Act (with Rep. Mike Lawler) | Announced September 18, 2026 | Mandatory National Security Agency pre-deployment review of the most powerful models for cyberattack and chemical, biological or radiological weapons risk, 30 days plus one 30-day extension, expedited appeal | (Source: gottheimer.house.gov) |
| China FIREWALL Act (with Rep. Nick LaLota) | Announced September 18, 2026 | Would ban all Chinese-developed open-weight AI models from government-issued devices and prohibit federal agencies from procuring software that relies on them | (Source: gottheimer.house.gov) |
The China FIREWALL Act builds on his No DeepSeek on Government Devices Act, which his office states became law as part of the FY2026 National Defense Authorization Act and blocked DeepSeek from federal devices; in announcing the new bill he named Moonshot's Kimi K3 and Alibaba's Qwen as Chinese open-weight models still usable at federal agencies (Source: gottheimer.house.gov). See Moonshot AI, Alibaba / Qwen Team.
Positions
Pre-deployment testing by government. On September 15, 2026 Gottheimer said that "handing independent auditors the job of protecting America's national security just won't cut it and certainly doesn't meet the moment." Announcing the American AI Security Act three days later he said "there are no mandatory requirements for pre-deployment testing of frontier AI models," called the administration's voluntary cybersecurity review process, which he tied to a June 2026 executive order (the June 2, 2026 order on AI innovation and security), a source of "mass confusion," and argued that third-party testers are too few, lack clearances and "rely, in part, on the labs themselves for funding. In short, it's like having the fox guard the hen house" (Source: gottheimer.house.gov). See AI Pre-Release Vetting, Embedded Evaluation.
AI in schools. Announcing the AI LABS Act at a Ridgewood, N.J. middle school on September 4, 2026, he argued against outright bans on student AI use, citing New York City's policy for students through eighth grade: "an outright ban doesn't teach a single kid how to use AI responsibly." He paired the bill with support for phone-free classrooms, including the bipartisan UNPLUGGED Act, and said students "need to learn how to think, solve problems, ask questions, and understand the material for themselves, not through a chatbot" (Source: gottheimer.house.gov). See AI LABS Act (H.R. 10315, 119th Congress).
Against a halt. He rejected stopping AI development: "The answer isn't, like some have suggested, to just shut it all down. That's not tenable. … China is not slowing down for anybody." See Coordinated slowdown proposals compared.
Autonomous cyberattack. He announced a letter to National Cyber Director Sean Cairncross questioning whether the administration's new AI cybersecurity clearinghouse, which he said is "only built to catch known vulnerabilities," can respond to "swarms of AI agents operating at machine speed," and raising whether the AI supply chain should be treated as critical infrastructure (Source: gottheimer.house.gov). See Autonomous cyber-agents.
He said he co-chairs a new AI Problem Solvers Task Force, said Republican leadership had not brought his AI bills to the floor, and urged the Speaker to recall the House before the November 2026 election to pass AI safety legislation (Source: gottheimer.house.gov).
Relationships
- related: American AI Security Act (Gottheimer–Lawler) — lead sponsor
- related: Stop Rogue AI Act (2026) — sponsor
- related: AI LABS Act (H.R. 10315, 119th Congress) — sponsor; H.R. 10315 — AI LABS Act (bill text) — bill text
- related: AI in Education — K-12 AI curricula grants
- related: Ted Lieu — co-leader of the House Democratic Commission on AI and the Innovation Economy
- related: AI Pre-Release Vetting — advocates mandatory government pre-deployment review
- related: AI Content Provenance — Spot the Fakes Act
- related: Unleashing AI Innovation in Financial Services Act (H.R. 4801) — co-lead sponsor; AI Regulatory Sandbox. Inside AI Policy noted that the Center for American Progress's September 2026 opposition to sandbox bills runs against his financial-services sandbox legislation (Source: insideaipolicy.com).