Director of the National Economic Council in the Trump administration.
The FDA analogy for model review
Hassett supplied the administration's most explicit framing of the draft pre-release vetting proposal, telling Fox Business that a government review of models before public release would work "just like an FDA drug" (AI Pre-Release Vetting). Politico reported a 16-page draft executive order under which Commerce would act as adjudicator.
The FDA comparison is the reason the statement is tracked rather than the proposal's status. A drug-approval analogy implies a specific institutional shape — pre-market authorisation, an adjudicating agency, a burden on the applicant to demonstrate safety — that differs sharply from the voluntary and disclosure-based instruments the administration has otherwise favoured, including the June 2026 executive order that expressly disclaimed authority to impose "a mandatory governmental licensing, preclearance, or permitting requirement." The two positions sit in tension, and the eventual order took the second.
Relationships
- related: AI Pre-Release Vetting — the proposal the statement describes
- related: EO — Promoting Advanced AI Innovation and Security (Trump, signed June 2, 2026), AI Policy (umbrella), President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST)