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Browse major news stories and see what officials have said.

Sep 24, 2026· Updated

The Day After Trump Tells the U.N. "Welcome to the New World of Super Intelligence," Bernie Sanders and Greg Casar Introduce a Bill to Ban It — Sanders Says "When You Are Racing Towards a Cliff … You Hit the Brakes," While John Kennedy Says "I'm Not Going to Support That Right Now" and Rick Scott Calls Controlling AI by Statute "a Joke"

On September 23, 2026, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX) introduced the Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act, which they first announced on September 3. The bill would permanently ban the development and deployment of artificial superintelligence, impose an immediate pause on advanced "frontier" AI development until a federal regulator writes safety rules, create a cabinet-level Department of Artificial Intelligence to enforce it, and direct the United States to pursue international agreements — including with China — so that no one builds AI "too powerful for humans to control." Violations would carry corporate dissolution and up to 20 years in prison. The bill landed a day after President Trump told the U.N. General Assembly that U.S. documents would now call AI "super intelligence," rejected any "globalist scheme of control" and said the United States would encourage the technology rather than rein it in. Casar's statement answered him directly: "Donald Trump says he wants to encourage it. Something has to change." It faces long odds in a Republican-controlled Congress. Asked by the Daily Caller the week before whether they would back a ban on AI that surpasses human intelligence, Sen. John Kennedy said "No," Sen. Rick Scott called the idea of passing a bill to control AI "a joke," and Sen. Josh Hawley said he was "really worried about superintelligence" but would not commit to a ban.

“A big day with President Xi of China. Super Intelligence (SI) will be a big topic of discussion, but I want to leave it exactly where it is. That is China's position also. Our guardrail is the DOJ!”
Donald Trump (R-FL) · Sep 24, 2026

artificial-intelligence

Twenty Months After the Midair Collision That Killed 67 People, Virginia's Senators Move to Cut Flights at Reagan National — the DCA Air Safety Act Would Cap Arrivals at 28 an Hour and Strip 30 Slots, Most of Them the Long-Haul Exemptions Congress Added

On September 10, 2026, Sens. Tim Kaine (D-VA) and Mark Warner (D-VA) unveiled the DCA Air Safety Act, which they said they would formally introduce the following week, to reduce air traffic at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The bill comes roughly twenty months after the January 29, 2025 midair collision between an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines regional jet on approach to DCA killed 67 people — a crash whose National Transportation Safety Board investigation, the senators said, "underscored the serious risks posed by unsustainable traffic levels at the airport." The legislation would cap arrivals at 28 aircraft per 60-minute period — down from the FAA's current rate of up to 48 an hour on DCA's single main runway, the busiest in the country — and require the FAA to reduce clustering of flights within 30-minute windows within 180 days. It would eliminate 30 daily slots over five years, with the FAA withdrawing six authorizations a year from 2028 through 2032; at least 26 of those would come from the "beyond-perimeter" exemptions that let flights exceed DCA's usual 1,250-mile limit, which Congress has repeatedly expanded over the objections of the Virginia and Maryland delegations. Slot eliminations would require a public process with a 60-day comment period, and the bill would set up a commission including the FAA, the Pentagon, the governors of Virginia and Maryland and the D.C. mayor's office. "We owe it to the victims of the fatal mid-air collision near DCA and their loved ones to take action and prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again," Warner said. Kaine said "Congress must do more to ensure that the highest level of safety regulations is in place to prevent future tragedies." The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority said only that it "will monitor the progress of the proposed legislation." American Airlines, DCA's dominant carrier, faces the largest schedule disruption and Alaska Airlines the largest proportional exposure. Senate Commerce Committee leaders, who wrote the most recent perimeter expansions into the 2024 FAA reauthorization, had not publicly responded as of September 11.

“We owe it to the victims of the fatal mid-air collision near DCA and their loved ones to take action and prevent a tragedy like this from ever happening again. DCA's overburdened runway is the busiest in the country, and the National Transportation Safety Board's (NTSB) investigation of the January 2025 crash underscored the serious risks posed by unsustainable traffic levels at the airport.”
Mark Warner (D-VA) · Sep 10, 2026

Democrats Introduce Bill to Block Trump From Collecting Federal Settlements

On April 15, 2026, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, Rep. Jamie Raskin, and Rep. Dave Min introduced the Ban Presidential Plunder of Taxpayer Funds Act (S.4299), a bill to bar the President, Vice President, and their immediate family members from collecting settlement payments from the federal government while in office. The bill was a direct response to Trump's $10 billion IRS lawsuit and a prior $230 million DOJ settlement demand — and anticipated the deal that would produce the $1.7B Anti-Weaponization Fund a month later. The bill has no path forward with Republicans controlling both chambers.

“It is such a blatant and obvious conflict for the President to be able to use the administration as his own personal ATM.”
Chuck Schumer (D-NY) · Apr 15, 2026