White House Declines Senate Democrats’ Request for AI Policy Clarity

Attempts by Senate Democrats to get more clarity about the White House’s AI policies have gone nowhere. A White House official responded last Friday to an August letter from a group of Senate Democrats asking for more details about the White House’s voluntary AI testing framework without a direct response to any of the questions.

Instead, acting Assistant Secretary Mason Champion wrote in the lettter, obtained by The Information, that the administration is “working closely with industry” to promote U.S. leadership while safeguarding national security. Champion added that the Treasury Department is coordinating with different government agencies to evaluate the risks and opportunities associated with frontier AI models.

Senate Democrats including Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, Adam Schiff, and Mark Warner wrote in early August, after the White House had finalized its voluntary AI testing framework, with a detailed list of questions seeking clarity about the unreleased framework. The letter also requested information on the legal authorities for imposing export controls to restrict access to foreign nationals inside the U.S., as the White House had done to Anthropic in June. The letter referred to the process and broader White House approach as a “black box,” “ad hoc” and “unpredictable.”

The White House has yet to share details of the framework publicly, and even leading companies briefed on the framework have unanswered questions about its applications and process, The Information previously reported.