Michael Bennet is a United States Senator (Democrat, Colorado). His AI-related legislative work centers on proposals for a dedicated federal regulator of digital platforms and, since 2026, of frontier AI developers, developed jointly with Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).
Legislative activity
Bennet and Welch first introduced the Digital Platform Commission Act in the Senate and House in 2022 and reintroduced it in 2023; the bill proposed bringing oversight of digital platforms into a dedicated agency (Source: bennet.senate.gov).
On September 23, 2026 the two senators announced the AI Regulator Act, described in their release as "a new proposal building off of" the earlier bill. Its section-by-section summary would establish a five-member Federal Digital Commission with plenary jurisdiction over digital platforms and AI developers, mandatory testing and approval of frontier models (trained with more than 10^26 operations) before public distribution, a power to pause a disapproved model for up to six months, 15-day critical safety incident reporting, and civil penalties capped at 15 percent of prior-year global revenue (AI Regulator Act of 2026 — Section-by-Section Summary (Bennet and Welch)). No bill text or bill number had been published as of September 26, 2026.
In May 2023 Bennet joined Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker on the REAL Political Ads Act, directed at synthetic political media (Source: klobuchar.senate.gov).
Positions and statements
Announcing the AI Regulator Act, Bennet compared it to earlier expert agencies: "In the past, we created new expert agencies to regulate aviation, pharmaceuticals, and telecommunications. But today, no such agency exists for AI or social media platforms." He said federal oversight is "fragmented between states and federal agencies, while Congress tries to address each new problem one bill at a time" (Source: bennet.senate.gov).
Relationships
- related: AI Regulator Act (Bennet–Welch proposal, 2026) — sponsor
- related: AI Regulator Act of 2026 — Section-by-Section Summary (Bennet and Welch)
- related: Peter Welch — co-sponsor
- related: AI Pre-Release Vetting
- related: Coordinated slowdown proposals compared