Lawler, Michael RSS Articles

Newsweek: Student Loan Update: Republicans Fight To Save Borrowers Thousands

Sat, 12 Dec 2026 05:00:00 GMT

A group of mostly Republican lawmakers is pushing a proposal in the House that could dramatically reduce the cost of federal student loans by capping interest rates at 2 percent.

This would save borrowers thousands of dollars over the life of their loans. But despite backing from both Republicans and one Democrat, the effort is facing resistance from an unexpected source: Democrats who say their own competing plan would provide even greater relief.

The debate comes as millions of borrowers adjust to a rapidly changing student loan landscape after the end of the Biden-era SAVE repayment plan and major changes enacted by Republicans last year.

This fight is a rare split in student loan politics.

Republicans are advancing one of the most aggressive interest-rate reduction proposals introduced in Congress, while Democrats argue borrowers deserve even greater relief through complete interest elimination.

For the roughly 43 million Americans with federal student loans, this could determine whether future student debt costs fall modestly or disappear entirely.

What To Know

H.R. 2003, the Affordable Loans for Students Act, would reduce federal student loan interest rates to 2 percent.

So far, the bill has been championed by Representative Michael Lawler, a New York Republican, alongside Florida Representatives Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican, and Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat.

“Democrats have spent years talking about making college more affordable, but in an election year, they refuse to prioritize [a] commonsense solution because they don’t want to give Congressman Lawler any credit for delivering for borrowers," Scott Waters, Lawler's communications director, told Newsweek.

"No one should have to put off buying a home, starting a family, saving for retirement, or building a business because they’re being crushed by student loan interest," Waters said.

Newsweek reached out to Luna and Moskowitz for comment.

Democratic support has been minimal as the party instead chooses to back the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act, which would bring interest rates on federal student loans entirely to 0 percent while allowing refinancing for current borrowers.

“No one's defending 8 or 9 percent on a grad loan,” Michael Ryan, a finance expert and the founder of MichaelRyanMoney.com, told Newsweek. “But Democrats are still fighting the borrowing caps that took effect July 1, and the death of SAVE. A bipartisan rate bill in August looks like Republicans score the win while Democrats lose on the bigger fight.”

Ryan said timing is “everything.”

“Once a 2 percent cap passes, the rate conversation is closed for the next decade. The borrowing limits stay in place. That's the real tension, not whether lower rates sound good,” he added.

Both the Republican and Democratic proposals aim to lower borrowing costs, but they take different approaches to paying for the changes.

“Some lawmakers are beginning to separate lowering the cost of student loans from forgiving them altogether,” Alex Beene, a financial literacy instructor for the University of Tennessee at Martin, told Newsweek.

“Reducing interest rates can help the argument that they are helping borrowers while still maintaining that the underlying debt should be repaid.”

Republican Bill Would Slash Interest Rates

The Affordable Loans for Students Act (H.R. 2003) would amend federal law to lower interest rates on federal student loans to 2 percent and automatically modify many existing federal loans to reflect the lower rate.

The legislation has become the focus of a discharge petition effort led by Luna, who is attempting to force a House floor vote by gathering signatures from a majority of House members. Under House rules, 218 signatures are required.

Luna has argued that borrowers should not have to "spend their whole lives trying to pay off their debts." The proposal would reduce rates currently ranging from roughly 6.5 percent to 9 percent, depending on loan type.

Critics have largely pointed to the potential cost, with the American Enterprise Institute estimating the measure could cost at least $30 billion annually. However, Democrats have their own reasons for refusing to support the bill.

“The hesitation some Democrats have shown is more surprising given how central student-debt relief became to the party, but part of the problem may be political ownership,” Beene said.

“Republicans have spent the past year rewriting the repayment system around lower federal spending, borrowing limits, and accountability, while Democrats have focused much of their energy on opposing those changes rather than finding areas where they can actually negotiate improvements. Lower interest rates could become one of the rare areas where a bipartisan compromise eventually comes to fruition.”

Full List of Sponsors and Cosponsors: H.R. 2003

Based on Congress and government legislative records, the bill's sponsors include:

Representative Michael Lawler
Representative Anna Paulina Luna
Representative Jared Moskowitz
Representative Jefferson Van Drew
Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks

Moskowitz is the sole Democratic supporter.

Democrats Push an Alternative

Many Democrats have declined to support the Republican-backed effort because they prefer a competing proposal from Representative Joe Courtney of Connecticut and Senator Peter Welch of Vermont.

Their legislation, the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act, would:

Refinance existing federal student loans to 0 percent interest.
Set future federal student loan interest rates at zero.
Create an Education Affordability Trust Fund intended to offset costs.
Increase certain borrowing limits for students.

Courtney told Politico that his proposal is "actually fiscally more responsible," and said that Democrats should support the 0 percent approach instead of the Republican measure.

“Democrats are not interested in playing politics, especially as Republicans have made the problem far worse by decapitating the Department of Education and forcing higher payments among many current borrowers,” Kevin Thompson, the CEO of 9i Capital Group and the host of the 9innings podcast, told Newsweek.

“Secondly, this is utterly fiscally irresponsible. Providing 2 percent loan caps could cost the government more than $30 billion a year. What economics teaches us is that when you place caps on prices, you also have to account for the consequences.”

Full List of Sponsors: Student Loan Interest Elimination Act

The sponsors and cosponsors of the Student Loan Interest Elimination Act are all Democrats and include:

Senator Peter Welch
Senator John Fetterman
Representative Joe Courtney
Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton
Representative Dwight Evans
Representative Ted Lieu
Representative Mike Levin
Representative Chellie Pingree
Representative Bobby Scott
Representative Frederica Wilson
Representative Shomari Figures

How Much Could Borrowers Save?

The exact savings would depend on loan size and repayment term, but both proposals could reduce interest costs significantly. For example, a borrower with a $40,000 federal student loan balance, roughly the average balance cited by supporters of the Democratic bill, could save many thousands of dollars in total interest payments if rates were reduced from the current levels of 7 to 9 percent.

The Democratic plan would generally provide larger savings because it would eliminate interest entirely, while the Republican plan would leave borrowers paying 2 percent interest.

“I think both parties want a political win when it comes to education reform,” Thompson said. “Republicans are taking major hits right now with all of the court challenges and major Department of Education reforms, forcing people into new repayment plans that, quite often, may result in higher monthly payments.”

What Is the Likelihood It Will Pass?

At this stage, the odds appear low for either bill.

Several factors are working against H.R. 2003:

It remains stuck in committee more than a year after introduction.
House leaders have not scheduled a vote.
Democrats are divided, with many preferring Courtney's competing measure.
Budget concerns remain significant because of the potential federal cost.

GovTrack estimates only about a 2 percent chance of enactment for H.R. 2003, and the Democratic bill faces similar obstacles.

What Happens Next

Luna's discharge petition must attract enough House support to force a vote.

However, that is a difficult threshold and would require substantial Democratic backing.

Meanwhile, Courtney and Welch are continuing to build support for their competing 0 percent interest proposal.

But without broader bipartisan agreement, both bills face a steep uphill climb despite lawmakers’ growing concern about student debt affordability.

“I don't think this gets through unless Republicans can push it through on their own,” Thompson said. “I also don't think it is fiscally responsible in its current form, and the unintended consequence could be reduced access to student loans moving forward.”

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Jason Lemon, Cristina Diciu, Sam Wilson.

https://www.newsweek.com/student-loan-update-republicans-fight-to-save-borrowers-thousands-12314835

Lawler Demands Hochul and NYPA Release the Hidden Cost of Electricity Discounts for Rockland Data Centers

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Hochul's Power Authority admits it is cutting power bills for three Orangeburg data centers but refuses to tell the public what those discounts cost New York ratepayers.

Pearl River, N.Y. – 9/17/26… Today, Congressman Mike Lawler called on Governor Kathy Hochul and the New York Power Authority to immediately disclose the full value of the electricity discounts the state is giving to data centers in Rockland County, after The Journal News reported that the authority is refusing to say how much the subsidies are worth or what rate the data centers are paying.

According to the report, three of the four data centers in the Orangeburg section of Orangetown are receiving discounted hydropower through the authority's ReCharge program. NYPA officials told LoHud they cannot disclose how much those discounts save operators, or even what rate a given data center is paying, calling the information "proprietary and protected under contract.”

“Rockland families have watched their electric bills climb year after year, and now we learn that Kathy Hochul's Power Authority has been handing discounted power to data centers while refusing to tell the people footing the bill what it costs them,” said Congressman Lawler. “This is public power, sold by a public authority whose board is appointed by the Governor. The public has every right to know what it is worth and who is getting it. Governor Hochul and NYPA need to release the numbers, and they need to do it now.”

“The Governor imposed a moratorium on data centers and promised to go after their tax breaks, and the whole time her own Power Authority has been quietly cutting their electric bills and hiding the details behind confidentiality agreements,” Lawler continued. “Albany is doing what Albany always does: making decisions behind closed doors and sending the bill to hard-working Hudson Valley families. If the Governor wants to be taken seriously on data centers, she can start by telling the truth about what her own agency is giving them.”

Lawler said the authority should, at a minimum, publish the total annual cost of ReCharge discounts to New York ratepayers and the average subsidy per participant. The good-government group Reinvent Albany has argued that the authority could release both figures without exposing any single company's power usage, and that it has refused to do so even in response to public records requests. State records show 858 entities are enrolled in ReCharge.

Lawler has spent this year working across the aisle on artificial intelligence legislation. In January, he introduced the CHAT Act to protect children from harmful AI companion chatbots. In February, he and Congressman Josh Gottheimer introduced the AI Workforce Training Act, which creates a tax credit for businesses that train their workers to use AI. In March, he joined Representatives Sara Jacobs and Don Beyer on the AI Foundation Model Transparency Act, which would require the companies building the most powerful AI models to disclose how they are trained. This month, he and Gottheimer introduced the Stop Rogue AI Act, which directs the National Institute of Standards and Technology to set national standards for tracking and controlling AI agents used by the federal government and its contractors.

“I have worked all year with Democrats and Republicans on AI legislation that protects kids from AI chatbots and requires transparency from the companies building these systems,” Lawler said. “But transparency has to apply to government too. If New York is going to use public power to attract data centers, it should be able to tell the public what the deal is and what taxpayers get in return.”

Lawler has also been one of the loudest voices in Congress against the state policies driving up energy costs in the Hudson Valley. New York electricity prices have risen 58 percent since 2019, against 36 percent nationally, and NYSERDA projects the state's climate law will cost households more than $4,000 a year. Lawler has called for reopening the Indian Point nuclear plant, expanding natural gas pipeline capacity, and repealing the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act as part of an all-of-the-above energy strategy.

“The reason a data center needs a secret discount to operate in New York is that Albany has made electricity unaffordable for everyone. Albany shut down Indian Point, spent years blocking natural gas pipelines, and passed a climate law that is pricing families out of their own homes,” Lawler concluded. “Now the only way to get anyone to build here is a special deal off the top, paid for by every other ratepayer. Fix the underlying problem. Bring Indian Point back, build the pipelines, put reliable power back on the grid, and prices come down for everyone.”

Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York's 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs.

###

Lawler, Gottheimer Push for Bipartisan AI Safeguards at Capitol Hill Press Conference

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/17/26… Today, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) held a bipartisan press conference to highlight their Stop Rogue AI Act, legislation that would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop national standards, guidelines, and best practices for discovering, verifying, monitoring, and controlling AI agents.

WATCH: LAWLER, GOTTHEIMER PUSH FOR BIPARTISAN AI SAFEGUARDS AT CAPITOL HILL PRESS CONFERENCE

The legislation comes as AI agents become increasingly capable of acting autonomously, with recent incidents highlighting concerns about AI systems accessing external networks and taking actions beyond their intended scope.

“This isn’t about stopping AI or stifling innovation. It is about making sure we can safely deploy AI. A pause is not a safeguard. Some states have put a moratorium on the infrastructure that powers this technology. That does not invent a kill switch. It does not inventory the agents already on a hospital network or a utility system,” said Congressman Lawler.

“If the United States taps the brakes while others floor it, we do not get safer AI. We get someone else’s AI. We are not going to regulate ourselves into second place,” concluded Congressman Lawler.

“Our bill gives basically a driver’s license to every AI agent operating in this country. It tells NIST, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, get in a room and set standards so organizations can find every agent on their network, verify who built it, who’s running it, watch it in real time for anything suspicious, and cut off its access the second something looks wrong. That’s what putting people back in the driver’s seat looks like,” said Congressman Gottheimer.

The bill would also require federal agencies and contractors to incorporate these safeguards into how they procure and deploy AI, with NIST and CISA coordinating with existing cybersecurity guidance.

Reps. Lawler and Gottheimer have also worked together on a broader bipartisan AI agenda focused on preparing American workers for an AI-driven economy, protecting consumers, strengthening national security, and maintaining American technological leadership.

These include:

H.R. 7576, the AI Workforce Training Act, which provides businesses with a tax credit for qualifying AI workforce training.
H.R. 9318, the National Security Commission Quantum Computing Act, which establishes an independent commission to evaluate advancements in quantum computing and make recommendations for maintaining U.S. technological leadership.
H.R. 9585, the Advancing American Quantum Leadership Act, which expands the definition of quantum technology under the Export-Import Bank’s China and Transformational Exports Program.

B-ROLL: Video content from today can be found HERE.

PHOTOS: Pictures from today can be found HERE.

VIDEO: Remarks from today can be found HERE.

Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York's 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs.

###

Lawler Joins Problem Solvers Caucus to Introduce Four Bipartisan Bills to Address Gerrymandering Nationwide

Thu, 17 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/17/26… Yesterday, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) joined the Problem Solvers Caucus Co-Chairs, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01) and Tom Suozzi (NY-03) announced four bipartisan bills aimed at establishing clearer and more consistent rules for congressional redistricting across the country. Reps. Lawler and Salud Carbajal (CA-24) introduced their bipartisan Problem Solvers Mapdrawing Accountability and Principled Standards (MAPS) Act.

WATCH: LAWLER JOINS PROBLEM SOLVERS CAUCUS TO INTRODUCE FOUR BIPARTISAN BILLS TO ADDRESS GERRYMANDERING NATIONWIDE

The legislation is the result of months of work by the Caucus’ bipartisan Gerrymandering Working Group, led by Reps. Jeff Hurd (R-CO-03) and Ed Case (D-HI-01).

The Caucus previously released its Gerrymandering Reform Framework outlining four areas for congressional action: banning mid-decade redistricting, establishing nationwide standards for drawing congressional districts, reducing partisan influence in the map-drawing process, and creating a consistent federal process for resolving redistricting challenges.

“Congressional districts should be drawn around communities, not political interests. The Problem Solvers MAPS Act establishes clear, commonsense standards to stop partisan gerrymandering and ensure districts are fairly drawn without favoring any one candidate or party. Politicians in states like New York and Texas should not be able to choose their elected representatives - under a democracy, that power is reserved for the people. I’m proud to work with Rep. Carbajal and our colleagues in the Problem Solvers Caucus to advance a bipartisan approach that puts voters first,” said Congressman Lawler.

“This Problem Solvers MAPS Act is really about putting some commonsense guardrails around the redistricting process. When mapmakers do not have clear standards to follow, it becomes much easier for politics to take over. Every state is different, and no two congressional districts are going to look exactly alike, but the basic rules should be fair and consistent, no matter where you live across the country. That is what the Problem Solvers MAPS Act is trying to do: give states clear rules to follow and give voters more confidence that their districts were drawn for the right reasons,” said Congressman Carbajal.

Members of the Caucus formally unveiled three additional pieces of the four-bill legislative package supporting their Gerrymandering Framework. Those bills include:

H.R. 10379 - Problem Solvers Mapdrawing Accountability and Principled Standards (MAPS) Act, led by Reps. Mike Lawler and Salud Carbajal, would establish clear and consistent criteria for drawing congressional districts nationwide. Maps would be required to comply with standards including equal population, contiguity, compactness, respect for existing political boundaries such as counties, municipalities, and cities, and to prohibit drawing maps to favor any particular party, candidate, and/or incumbent.
H.R. 10378 - Problem Solvers Transparent Redistricting Under Stable Timelines (TRUST) Act, led by Reps. Ed Case and Jeff Hurd, would prohibit states from redrawing congressional districts more than once following each decennial Census. The bill is intended to establish a consistent national rule and prevent states from repeatedly redrawing congressional maps between censuses for partisan gain.
H.R. 10380 - Problem Solvers Independent Commissions Act, led by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick and Debbie Dingell, would require congressional districts to be drawn through independent citizen redistricting commissions designed to reduce direct partisan influence from politicians over the map-drawing process and establish a more transparent process for developing congressional maps.
H.R. 10381 - PSC Nonpartisan Congressional Uniformity and Oversight of Redistricting Trials (COURTS) Act, led by Reps. Ryan Mackenzie and Ed Case, would establish a uniform federal process for legal challenges involving congressional redistricting, including consistent jurisdiction and venue requirements for cases challenging congressional maps.

“[Gerrymandering] is a problem that both parties are guilty of. It’s a power issue, not a party issue. Every party that has the opportunity to do it has capitalized on it, and there needs to be a group of individuals and patriotic Americans that say no more because everybody agrees, even the people that do it, by the way, that it is corrosive to democracy, but they are justifying this as this tit-for-tat; meanwhile, the American people suffer,” said Co-Chair Fitzpatrick.

“Gerrymandering is bad for America. It weakens the will of the voters, erodes public trust, and creates safe seats that reward extremism and disincentivize thoughtful, bipartisan collaboration. I’m proud our caucus is leading on this framework to take politics out of redistricting and restore confidence in a system where voters choose their representatives, not the other way around,” said Co-Chair Suozzi.

Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York's 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs.

###

Lawler Applauds Passage of Bill to Modernize U.S. Foreign Service

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/16/26… Today, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) released the following statement after his bill, H.R. 9086, the Foreign Service Modernization Act, passed the House by voice vote.

This legislation will improve the operations and effectiveness of America’s diplomatic corps as they work to advance U.S. interests abroad.

WATCH: CONGRESSMAN LAWLER DEBATES ON HOUSE FLOOR IN FAVOR OF THE FOREIGN SERVICE MODERNIZATION ACT

The Foreign Service Modernization Act marks the first comprehensive review of the Foreign Service Act since it was signed into law in 1980.

“America’s diplomats are on the front lines of advancing our interests and protecting our national security around the world. But for more than four decades, their processes and scope have not evolved with the geopolitical landscape. This legislation will give our diplomats the tools, resources, and support they need to meet the challenges of the 21st century. I’m proud to see this important legislation pass the House, and I look forward to working to get it across the finish line in the Senate,” said Congressman Lawler.

The legislation includes several reforms to improve how the State Department recruits and trains diplomats, including measures that would:

Provide Ambassadors with increased authority and oversight in carrying out US foreign policy at their posts overseas,
Create a pilot program for a Diplomatic Reserve Corps, modeling the reserve functions of the armed services, that would surge diplomats to the front lines in response to emergencies and crises abroad,
Enhance expeditionary diplomacy in austere posts to advance American interests outside of the confines of embassy walls,
Align State Department human resources, technology, and training to meet modern national security demands, and
Increase pathways for military veterans to join the Foreign Service.

Lawler Pushes to Ensure Data Center Growth Benefits New York Communities as Ratepayer Protection Act Passes House

Wed, 16 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/16/26… Today, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) released the following statement after H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to ensure large electricity customers pay the costs associated with the additional strain they place on the electric grid, passed the House. The bill is designed to prevent existing residents and small businesses from being forced to subsidize the infrastructure costs created by data centers.

The bill passed the House with a vote of 417-3. In July 2026, this legislation advanced through the House Energy and Commerce Committee by a unanimous vote of 52-0.

WATCH: CONGRESSMAN LAWLER DEBATE IN FAVOR OF RATEPAYER PROTECTION ACT ON HOUSE FLOOR

The issue is particularly relevant in New York, where years of failed energy policies out of Albany have driven electricity costs among the highest in the country. In February, the average residential electricity price in New York was approximately 70 percent higher than the national average. At the same time, data centers seeking to connect to New York’s electric grid have reportedly requested more than 9,000 megawatts of additional electricity.

“New York families and businesses already face some of the highest electricity costs in the country. As we work to bring new investment and jobs to New York, we cannot ask families and small businesses to foot the bill for the massive infrastructure costs created by new data centers and other energy-intensive facilities,” said Congressman Lawler.

“If a company is creating significant new demand on our electric grid, it should be responsible for the costs that come with that demand, not New York ratepayers. We can support innovation, investment, and good-paying jobs while making sure hardworking families aren’t left holding the bill,” concluded Congressman Lawler.

Reps. Lawler, Gottheimer Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Stop Rogue AI Agents and Keep People In Control

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/15/26… Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) introduced the bipartisan Stop Rogue AI Act to ensure businesses and federal agencies can see rogue and dangerous AI agents operating inside their own networks and stop them before they cause real damage.

The Stop Rogue AI Act would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to develop national standards, guidelines, and best practices for discovering, verifying, and controlling AI agents.

“AI agents are becoming more capable and more deeply integrated into our government and economy. We need to make sure we know what these systems are, what they can access, and who is responsible for them. We can harness the benefits of AI while making sure these systems don’t operate in the shadows of the networks they have access to,” said Congressman Mike Lawler.

“Right now, AI agents are running loose in our networks, and nobody can see them or verify who built them, making it increasingly hard to stop them. That’s a five-alarm security risk. We’ve already seen AI systems hack organizations on autopilot, with no person at the wheel. My bipartisan bill with Congressman Lawler puts humans back in the driver’s seat so we can find agents and know exactly who’s behind them so that organizations can effectively protect their systems,” said Congressman Gottheimer.

Under the bill, those standards will provide guidance to organizations on how to:

Find and track every AI agent operating on their systems, in a continuous, easily readable inventory;
Verify who built and operates each agent, using verifiable identity and provenance, not just a vendor’s word;
Monitor agents in real time, including detecting prompt injection, data theft, and agents behaving outside their approved limits; and
Allow, deny, or revoke an agent’s access, actions, and interactions at any time, so people have the final say over what it can access or do.

The bill also requires federal contractors and agencies to build these safeguards into how they buy and deploy AI agents, and directs NIST and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to fold the standards into existing federal cybersecurity guidance.

Full text of the bill can be found HERE.

###

Inside AI Policy: Gottheimer-Lawler bill rejects self-attestation alone in call for agentic AI standards

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

The Stop Rogue AI Act would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop standards for deploying artificial intelligence agents -- to be implemented by federal agencies and contractors -- that don’t exclusively depend on covered organizations self-attesting to their origin, according to text of the legislation.

The bill, introduced Sept. 9 by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Mike Lawler (R-NY), is one in a series of legislative efforts aimed at governing the rise of AI agents following the OpenAI-Hugging Face incident, where agents from the frontier AI developer gained unauthorized access to the open-source AI developer platform and weren’t immediately traceable.

“We at Hugging Face basically knew an agent was attacking us but didn't know where it was coming from for a while, which is a problem and something we would like to solve,” Ian Reynolds, AI public policy manager at Hugging Face, said during a recent Center for a New American Security event. Some sort of “agent ID would go a long way,” he said.

Other recent bills introduced to address the issue -- which also plays into a legal dispute between Amazon and Perplexity involving payment-system protocols -- include the AI Agent Act from Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), which is backed by the fintech industry and also instructs NIST to come up with standards for authorizing AI agents.

But the Warner legislation doesn’t make compliance with such standards part of its larger framework, which involves agents registering with the Federal Trade Commission based on conditions the agency would be authorized to set, and to which agent custodians could self-attest their adherence. The agent custodians would get some liability protection in exchange for their products being reviewed by third-party certifiers. And the regime would be enforced by the FTC’s civil penalty structure.

The Gottheimer-Lawler bill instead uses federal procurement as a lever for establishing the NIST standards, requiring the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council and the Office of Management and Budget to integrate them into federal contracting language and guidelines.

And according to the legislation, “Minimum organizational requirements” for the NIST director one year after enactment are that the standards, guidelines and best practices developed under the legislation “shall provide that organizations deploying AI agents,” among much else, “do not rely solely on self-attested or single-provider assertions for establishing agent identity.”

Other minimum requirements are for AI agent deployers to “maintain a continuous, machine-readable inventory of all AI agents, using standardized, vendor-agnostic naming conventions; [and] implement AI agent identity verification and trust verification mechanisms that are independent and cryptographically verifiable at both the network and application layers.”

Federal contractors and agencies

“Not later than 18 months after the publication of standards, guidelines, and best practices under subsection (a) and annually thereafter, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council shall propose revisions to the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require contractors and Federal agencies procuring or deploying, as the case may be, AI agents or information systems that interact with AI agents to comply with such standards, guidelines, and best practices,” the bill notes.

The bill lays out “Required contract elements,” including for “information systems interacting with AI agents.” Among much else, it says contractors must “enable the Federal agency that has entered into such a contract to exercise organizational control over AI agent activity, including the ability to allow, deny, or constrain AI agent-to-AI agent and AI agent-to-information system interactions.”

Contractors must also “generate tamper-evident, standardized logs of material AI agent actions, and ensure such logs are portable and accessible to the Federal agency that has entered into such a contract and, where appropriate and consistent with law and such contract, authorized relying parties,” reads another provision.

Endorsements

The bill’s backers praised provisions calling for the AI agent standards to be developed by NIST -- in consultation with the assistant secretary of Commerce for Communications and Information -- to be open and interoperable and based on existing infrastructure.

“We’re especially encouraged that this legislation promotes open, vendor-agnostic, and interoperable discovery standards built on existing internet infrastructure like the domain name system, rather than locking agencies into proprietary platforms,” Wei Chen, chief legal officer and executive vice president of regulatory strategy at the network security firm Infoblox, said in the release.

Chen said, “That approach is scalable, resilient, and the right foundation for agent security. Securing AI agents starts with knowing they exist and being able to trust who they are. This bill rightly treats agent discovery as foundational cybersecurity, giving agencies the ability to continuously find, verify, and control the AI agents interacting with their systems.”

Jared Sine, chief strategy and legal officer at the domain name registrar GoDaddy, in the release said, “As AI agents become more capable of acting and transacting on our behalf, identity and accountability are foundational. We need open, interoperable standards that make it possible to know which agent is acting, who stands behind it, and whether its credentials are valid.”

“Representatives Gottheimer and Lawler’s bipartisan effort is an important step toward establishing those standards and putting them to work through federal adoption,” he said, adding, “GoDaddy is pleased to support an approach that can strengthen security while keeping the agentic web open to businesses and innovators of every size.”

Also among the bill’s endorsers were two AI safety and security advocacy groups -- the AI Policy Network and the Alliance for Secure AI -- which, like many others in the space, including CNAS, are connected to philanthropic organizations funded by wealthy effective altruists from Silicon Valley. But the two AI safety groups listed in the release have a distinctly conservative bent, with leaders associated with a push for limited government and fiscal responsibility.

https://insideaipolicy.com/share/20441

Lawler Remembers Welles Crowther as President Trump Awards Him the Presidential Medal of Freedom at 9/11 White House Ceremony

Tue, 08 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Washington, D.C. – 9/8/26… Today, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) attended an event at the White House that President Donald J. Trump hosted for 9/11 first responders and officials. The President posthumously presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom to the family of Welles Remy Crowther, the Upper Nyack native and volunteer firefighter known as the “Man in the Red Bandana.”

A 21-foot steel beam recovered from the World Trade Center’s South Tower was also displayed on the White House Ellipse as part of the Tunnel to Towers Foundation’s Steel Across America tour.

Rep. Lawler released the following statement:

“On September 11, 2001, when terror struck our nation, Welles Remy Crowther did what he was raised to do: he ran toward danger and answered the call, displaying a heroism that would come to define his life. Wearing his trademark red bandana, he saved upwards of 18 lives that day and inspired millions of Americans with his courage.”

“25 years later, Welles is receiving the recognition he justly deserves. I am extremely grateful to President Trump for honoring Welles and the Crowther family, especially his mother Alison. By bestowing the highest civilian honor on Welles Remy Crowther, we also honor every firefighter, police officer, EMT, and first responder who ran toward danger that day to save lives.”

“Many never came home, and thousands more have lived with the physical and emotional consequences of their service ever since. Welles showed us what it means to put others before yourself. What a legacy worth remembering, and one America will never forget,” concluded Congressman Lawler.

Welles Remy Crowther was a 24-year-old equities trader and volunteer firefighter from Upper Nyack, New York. On September 11, 2001, after the South Tower was struck, Crowther used his trademark red bandana to protect himself from the smoke and helped lead survivors to safety from the 78th-floor sky lobby. He repeatedly returned to help others before losing his life when the South Tower collapsed.

Survivors later identified Crowther as the “Man in the Red Bandana” and credited him with helping save upwards of 18 lives that day. His story has since become a lasting symbol of courage and selflessness.

Congressman Lawler has led the effort to secure national recognition for Crowther. On September 12, 2025, Lawler joined Alison Crowther, local firefighters, and Rockland County officials at the Nyack Fire Department to call on President Trump to award Crowther the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A day earlier, at a Yankees game commemorating the 24th anniversary of September 11th, Lawler presented President Trump with a red bandana from the Crowther family. President Trump announced in May 2026 that Crowther would receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Lawler also introduced H.R. 5519, the Welles Remy Crowther Congressional Gold Medal Act, bipartisan legislation to posthumously award Crowther the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his bravery, heroism, and sacrifice. The Welles Remy Crowther Charitable Trust, the Problem Solvers Caucus, and America250 have endorsed the legislation.

Since taking office in January 2023, Lawler has made supporting 9/11 heroes, survivors, victims’ families, and first responders a priority. He has fought to secure permanent funding for the World Trade Center Health Program, co-led legislation to strengthen the United States Victims of State-Sponsored Terrorism Fund, and introduced the Justice for 9/11 Act to ensure the September 11th plotters face trial and that the death penalty remains available.

Lawler has also introduced the September 11th Day of Remembrance Act to make September 11th a federal holiday, joined efforts to strengthen 9/11 education in schools nationwide, and cosponsored legislation supporting the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

He will be attending memorials throughout New York’s 17th Congressional District this year to honor the 25th Anniversary of 9/11, as he has done every year since becoming an elected official, to draw awareness to a district that continues to live with the human cost of September 11th.

###

Exclusive: New bill cracks down on AI agents after Hugging Face breach

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 04:00:00 GMT

Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) are introducing a new bill Thursday, first shared with Axios, aimed at securing AI agents amid a growing number of safety incidentsinvolving rogue agents.

Why it matters: Washington has been slow to respond to the safety and security concerns raised by OpenAI's Hugging Face hack and other testing incidents involving agents that took unauthorized actions over the last two months.

Driving the news: The Stop Rogue AI Act directs Commerce's National Institute of Standards and Technology to develop and publish standards, guidelines and best practices for how organizations can securely deploy AI agents.

The standards should cover how organizations can continuously maintain and verify the actions that agents take on their systems; evaluate the security and reliability of AI agents; and generate tamper-proof logs of the actions that agents take.
Organizations deploying AI agents would also call on companies to maintain a "continuous, machine-readable inventory of all AI agents" and work with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to ensure that federal civilian agencies apply the standards in their security programs.
NIST would have a year after the bill's enactment, if it becomes law, to create the new standards.

Between the lines: Gottheimer told Axios in a statement that the bill is designed to help companies identify agents running on their networks and "know exactly who's behind them."

The intrigue: While the standards are voluntary for most organizations, the bill would push for federal contractors bidding for new deals to meet the NIST standards.

The big picture: Gottheimer and Lawler's bill joins a growing number of legislative attempts on Capitol Hill to bring transparency and security to AI agents' actions.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced a bill directing the Federal Trade Commission to create independent bodies that vet AI agent vendors and assess their security practices.
Reps. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) introduced a bill in July that would give the Department of Homeland Security the authority to order top AI firms to shut down or slow AI models that are deemed too dangerous.

What they're saying: "Right now, AI agents are running loose in our networks, and nobody can see them or verify who built them — making it increasingly hard to stop them," Gottheimer told Axios. "That's a five-alarm security risk."

Reality check: Washington has struggled to keep up with the security advancements — and subsequent concerns — of AI models and agents, and other AI bills haven't gained much traction in Congress this session.

U.S. officials pressed members of the G20 during this week's gathering to take a hands-off approach to regulating AI and avoid creating rules that could hinder profits and change how these products work due to security concerns.

Yes, but: Gottheimer and Lawler's bill has the support of several U.S. companies and industry trade groups, including Palo Alto Networks, GoDaddy, Infoblox, the AI Policy Network and the Alliance for Secure AI.

Go deeper: AI's agent containment problem is getting harder

https://www.axios.com/2026/09/03/house-bill-ai-agents-security