The Workforce Transparency Act is bipartisan U.S. Senate legislation introduced April 30, 2026 by Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Ted Budd (R-NC). It would require the U.S. Department of Labor to collect and publish data on how employers use artificial intelligence in the workplace (Source: https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-budd-introduce-legislation-to-collect-data-on-ais-impact-guide-lawmakers/).
Status and timeline
The bill was introduced on April 30, 2026. As of the most recent record it had been introduced but not yet referred to committee report (Source: https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-budd-introduce-legislation-to-collect-data-on-ais-impact-guide-lawmakers/).
Scope and key provisions
The bill would task the Department of Labor with building a system to collect and publish data on how employers are using AI. The categories named include, but are not limited to:
- AI tools used for hiring, screening, and promotion, an area that overlaps with the vendor-liability theory in Mobley v. Workday, Inc.
- AI tools used for workforce monitoring and productivity surveillance
- Aggregate AI-driven workforce reductions and reassignments
- Sectoral and geographic distribution of AI adoption
Warner described the rationale as a need for baseline visibility: in his framing, lawmakers cannot guide responsible AI workforce policy without data on how AI is actually being deployed in the workplace (Source: https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/warner-budd-introduce-legislation-to-collect-data-on-ais-impact-guide-lawmakers/).
Sponsors and political context
The bill was introduced jointly by Warner, a Democrat, and Budd, a Republican. Warner has been active on AI governance, including participation in the GPAI discussion thread and on AI workforce concerns. Budd's co-sponsorship indicates Republican interest in transparency-oriented approaches, introduced alongside the broader preemption push associated with the AI Action Plan and EO 14365. The bipartisan introduction contrasts with the more partisan pattern of AI-regulation activity in the 119th Congress.
Related measures and data sources
The bill addresses employer-side AI-usage data, adjacent to provider-side adoption data such as the Anthropic Economic Index. Its hiring-tool provisions connect to the vendor-liability theory advanced in Mobley v. Workday, Inc., and its subject matter sits within the broader workforce debate covered in AI Labor Disruption. Its transparency-first design parallels the frontier-developer transparency requirements of CA SB 53.
Source
- Office of Senator Mark Warner — Warner, Budd Introduce Legislation to Collect Data on AI's Impact, Guide Lawmakers (April 30, 2026): warner.senate.gov
Relationships
- related: Mobley v. Workday, Inc. (AI hiring vendor liability), AI Labor Disruption, Anthropic Economic Index — March 2026: Learning Curves
- supports: transparency-first federal AI governance approaches (parallel to CA SB 53's frontier-developer transparency)