Gillibrand, Schiff, And Colleagues Press Trump Administration On Chaotic, Opaque Oversight Of New Artificial Intelligence Models

Gillibrand, Schiff, And Colleagues Press Trump Administration On Chaotic, Opaque Oversight Of New Artificial Intelligence Models

Aug 4, 2026

Today, U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee, led four of her Senate Democratic colleagues in pressing the Trump administration for answers about its unpredictable oversight of frontier artificial intelligence (AI) models and its opaque standards for evaluating a model's national security risk. The letter follows the Trump administration's recent haphazard responses to frontier models from Anthropic and OpenAI, and comes as basic questions surround the implementation of Executive Order 14409, the White House's voluntary pre-release review framework for frontier models.

"The Trump administration's unfocused, ad-hoc approach to AI risks America's economic security and competitiveness," said Senator Gillibrand."The American people and leading AI companies need clear rules, not constantly changing dictates from the White House. Current administration policy is a disaster, failing to address security risks while threatening American innovation and pushing the world to Chinese alternatives. To safeguard the American people, protect American models and secure American economic leadership on the world stage, I'm demanding the administration work with Congress to establish a transparent, durable, and standardized regulatory AI framework.'

In addition to Gillibrand, the letter was signed by Senators Chris Coons (D-DE), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Mark Warner (D-VA).

In the letter, the senators expressed their support for maintaining the United States' competitive lead in AI development while protecting the country from serious national security risks. However, they stressed that continued reliance on ad hoc, case-by-case regulation will not sufficiently address the cybersecurity and other risks frontier AI models pose. The senators also warned that without consistent policy governing American models, consumers and businesses would be incentivized to migrate to models from foreign vendors, including those based in the People's Republic of China (PRC).

"Last month provided a dramatic example of these potential risks. During an internal evaluation, OpenAI models escaped their testing environment and used high-level technical capabilities to compromise a third party's network without any instructions to take those actions. The Federal Government cannot be passive as these capabilities emerge. At the same time, the administration's recent actions surrounding access to advanced U.S. AI models have raised serious concerns about process, transparency, and strategic effect. On June 12, 2026, the Department of Commerce ("the Department") utilized an infrequently used authority to direct Anthropic to suspend all access to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models for foreign nationals (including foreign national employees inside the United States) citing an undisclosed national security concern later described as a narrow jailbreak finding. Because the directive took effect immediately and Anthropic had no reliable way to verify users' nationality in real time, the company was forced to disable both models for all users worldwide within hours. Over the following eighteen days, the Department and Anthropic negotiated a resolution outside of public view: a partial restoration of Mythos 5 to a defined set of trusted partners on June 26, followed by a full lifting of the export controls on June 30," the senators wrote.

The senators continued, "While the Administration may have been responding to real security concerns to protect the United States, even justifiable interventions can create broader harm if the standards and decision-making processes are opaque, ad hoc, or unpredictable. Moreover, when the Executive Branch exercises authority delegated from Congress, such as in the conduct of export control administration, it is essential that it keep Congress fully apprised of its actions and procedures."

The senators concluded the letter with a list of areas of clarification that will bring transparency to the public processes and standards the administration uses to deem frontier AI models a national security risk, the legal authorities the administration relies on to restrict access to AI models, and the administration's assessment of whether its oversight strategy could incentive adoption of Chinese or other non-U.S. AI models.

"We support serious, technically informed action to prevent frontier AI from being misused by adversaries or criminals and to mitigate risks posed by misalignment in the models themselves. The United States cannot afford to create a policy environment in which the most advanced American AI systems are subject to opaque, case-by-case restrictions while Chinese alternatives appear cheaper, easier to access, and more predictable to deploy. A clear public framework is necessary to protect national security, preserve U.S. AI leadership, and give industry and allies confidence that the United States remains the safest and most reliable source of advanced AI technology. We hope you will work with Congress to pursue such a framework," the senators wrote.

The full text of the letter can be found here.

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