House Republican leaders want Sen. Jim Banks’ (R-Ind.) “America First” export control proposal to go through regular order rather than riding on the annual defense policy bill, according to two people familiar with the concerns.
The GAIN AI Act was included in the Senate’s National Defense Authorization Act but not in the House version. The measure, which didn’t go through the committee process, would give American buyers of artificial intelligence chips first dibs before the advanced technology is exported to China and other adversarial nations.
The House Republican leaders’ concerns of a rushed process could mean the proposal gets stripped from the defense bill when key lawmakers hammer out a compromise version. The White House has remained mum publicly on this issue.
House GOP leaders‘ position puts GAIN AI’s chances of crossing the finish line this year at risk. Nvidia has been forcefully lobbying against the measure, arguing it could imperil U.S. leadership of AI. If GAIN AI is stripped from the NDAA, it’d be a big win for the company.
Hawks’ darling. GAIN AI has been a favorite for China hawks. They’ve long advocated, often at odds with the Trump administration, that the Chinese shouldn’t have access to advanced American AI chips.
While the proposal caught most people on the Hill and in the chip industry by surprise when it was first included in the Senate NDAA, it has been gaining traction among lawmakers.
House Select Committee on China Chair John Moolenaar (R-Mich.) has been pushing for its inclusion in the final NDAA. Senate Intelligence Committee Chair Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) is also a big proponent of the proposal. We’ve also reported that the House Foreign Affairs panel was leaning toward supporting the bill.
But, while the White House’s official position was unclear, the Trump administration’s AI Czar David Sacks has been critical, at least of the version that passed the Senate.
The House and Senate Armed Services committees are still hammering out the NDAA’s final text. They hope to reach a compromise around Thanksgiving, which likely means there will be a heated lobbying fight over GAIN AI for the next few weeks.
