Michael Vincent Lawler is an American Republican politician who has represented New York's 17th congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since January 3, 2023 (Source: en.wikipedia.org; lawler.house.gov). In September 2026 he joined Democratic Representative Josh Gottheimer on two AI bills: the Stop Rogue AI Act, on security standards for AI agents, and the American AI Security Act, which would require a mandatory national-security review of the most powerful AI models before deployment.
| Party | Republican |
| District | New York's 17th (parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess and Westchester Counties) |
| In office | From January 3, 2023 |
| Previously | New York State Assembly, 97th district (2021–2022) |
Background
Lawler was born in Suffern, New York in 1986 and graduated from Manhattan College with degrees in accounting and finance (Source: en.wikipedia.org; lawler.house.gov). Before Congress he was executive director of the New York State Republican Party, a senior adviser to the Westchester County Executive and deputy town supervisor of Orangetown, founded a government affairs and public relations firm, and represented the 97th district in the New York State Assembly from 2021 to 2022 (Source: lawler.house.gov; en.wikipedia.org). He was first elected to Congress in 2022, defeating Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee chair Sean Patrick Maloney, and was re-elected in 2024 over Mondaire Jones (Source: en.wikipedia.org).
AI legislation
Stop Rogue AI Act
The Stop Rogue AI Act directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for securely deploying and operating AI agents and directs procurement revisions requiring federal contractor and agency compliance (Stop Rogue AI Act — bill text as introduced (119th Congress); see Stop Rogue AI Act (2026)). Lawler described the measure as one that "Rep Josh Gottheimer and I are introducing" to help organizations identify AI agents on their networks (Source: facebook.com). The introduced print published by the Government Publishing Office, H.R. 10362, dated September 14, 2026, reads "Mr. Gottheimer (for himself and Mr. Lawler) introduced the following bill," and records referral to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (Source: govinfo.gov). An earlier copy of the text lists Gottheimer alone (Stop Rogue AI Act — bill text as introduced (119th Congress)).
Lawler and Gottheimer held a news conference on the bill at which, according to C-SPAN's summary, they discussed the recent intrusion involving Hugging Face, raised concerns about AI agents operating within computer networks without adequate oversight, and said the legislation was intended not to stop AI development but to keep humans in control of the technology (Source: c-span.org).
American AI Security Act
On September 18, 2026 Gottheimer announced the American AI Security Act, "co-led by Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17)," which would require developers of the most powerful AI models to give the National Security Agency full access for a mandatory pre-deployment review of whether a model could be used to launch a serious cyberattack or help build a chemical, biological or radiological weapon, within 30 days plus one 30-day extension, with an expedited appeal modeled on national-security courts. Lawler said in the announcement: "The American AI Security Act takes a commonsense approach: before the most powerful AI models are deployed, we should know whether they could be used to launch devastating cyberattacks or facilitate the development of chemical, biological, or radiological weapons" (Source: gottheimer.house.gov). See American AI Security Act (Gottheimer–Lawler) and AI Pre-Release Vetting.
Election security
On July 13, 2026 Lawler urged CISA to coordinate with the Federal Election Commission and the Justice Department on mitigating AI-enabled threats to the 2026 election cycle (Source: insideaipolicy.com). See AI in Elections and Democratic Institutions.
Relationships
- related: Josh Gottheimer — co-sponsor on both AI bills
- related: American AI Security Act (Gottheimer–Lawler) — co-lead
- related: Stop Rogue AI Act (2026) — cosponsor on the introduced print, H.R. 10362
- related: Stop Rogue AI Act — bill text as introduced (119th Congress)
- related: National Security Agency (NSA) — reviewer under the American AI Security Act
- related: AI Pre-Release Vetting
- related: AI in Elections and Democratic Institutions
- related: Hugging Face — intrusion cited at the Stop Rogue AI Act news conference