Everton Blair Jr.

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Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about the importance of artificial intelligence and to challenge this Congress' abdication on its regulation. While we fail to debate, the technology is already rewriting the American labor system. Goldman Sachs estimated this April that AI is eliminating roughly 16,000 net American jobs every month. Stanford's analysis of payroll data finds employment for workers aged 22 to 25 in AI-exposed occupations running about 19 percent below trend, while experienced workers in those same fields show no comparable decline. Run that back. The damage is landing on young people, on the first job, on the rung of the ladder that a kid from my district needs to reach their potential. What has this Congress done? Nothing, except entertain proposal after proposal to strip States of their power to act. Twice now, Congress has overwhelmingly rejected preemption, including a 99-1 Senate vote against a 10-year moratorium on State AI regulation. Still it comes back. Let us be clear about this record. This body will not pass a Federal standard, and this body will not let States pass one either. That is not caution. That is negligence, which brings me to my second point. Mr. Speaker, the House returned for votes last night and leaves on September 17. Leadership canceled the final two votes in September, meaning Members will not return back to the body until after the November election. While that may be good for those of us who are on the ballot and need to retain the confidence of voters, it is not good for the hardworking American people who expect us to be doing things to make their lives more affordable. As the newest member of this body, sent here to represent the people of Georgia's 13th Congressional District through the end of this Congress, I would sure like to do my job. Let me put that into context. Through just August 31, the House had held floor votes on just 65 days, the fewest at this point in any comparable midterm year since 1994. The House spent 383 hours in session, the lowest in three decades of comparison, and Congress has enacted just 34 public bills into law. At this same point in the last midterm cycle, we had enacted 93. The Speaker's answer to this call? ``We are doing phenomenal work.'' Phenomenal work, Mr. Speaker? With a national debt north of $40 trillion, with appropriations unfinished, a stopgap running out in December, and with an unregulated technology reshaping every workplace in the country, we can do better. Mr. Speaker, I came to work. As far as I am concerned, with the challenges facing this Nation, we need to run through the tape using every moment we can to serve the American people. Instead, we are going home, but not because the work is done. We are going home because the work is hard and because an election is on the way. The American people are entitled to notice the difference. We can do better than this.