CONGRESS

Lutnick Confirmation Hearing

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD): “I also mentioned, and we talked, you’ve talked about it already, alluded to artificial intelligence, but I believe we need to craft a legislative framework that provides basic accountability for high-risk AI models without onerous regulations. And as you and I know, the Biden administration only viewed AI as a threat that should be controlled. And I was encouraged to see President Trump’s executive order reversing Biden’s sweeping AI executive order, and for his leadership in developing a comprehensive, pro-innovation AI plan that strengthens U.S. global leadership in AI. So I want to just get you, if you can, to talk generally, if confirmed, how you would approach AI regulation and to seek the- and to harness major advancements in artificial intelligence…And I just think it’s really important, as we think about it, that we not stifle innovation. We want to be the leader. A light-touch approach to this is what makes sense to me, and I hope, as we move forward, and Senator Klobuchar and I and others on this committee have a bill that we think gets at that, and I hope that we have an opportunity to work. This is one of those issues that ought to be bipartisan up here, I certainly think.”
  • Lutnick: “So the Department of Commerce has led the world in, in cyber, right, our our cyber technology and cyber rules are the gold standard of the world. Let’s leverage that model into the standards for artificial intelligence. That’s us what we’re great at and leverage that again, and use it again. So rather than think about it, we want to make sure we protect and defend our country. But we want to make sure that we lead, it has to be an American driven leadership, and AI is fundamental. So leverage what we’re great at an issue standards and practices, like we did in cyber, that will encourage private sector to be the dominant winner, as we are in America. We’ve got to do that and make sure we win in AI as well.”

• Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA): “So now this back again to this big task on export controls and thwarting China and dealing with this AI problem and all the various interests. I mean, I do have some, you know, concerns too… So I’m wanting to know from you because again, it’s back to this whole crypto oversight, export controls. What are you going to do? What do you recommend we do to try to get a handle on that?”
  • Lutnick: “I think AI tools used by the US government running through the blockchain of stable coin issuers will rid the world of criminals using Blockchain. For illicit activity, our ability to oversee that blockchain and rip through it with AI tools will eliminate it.”

• Sen. Todd Young (R-IN): “It’s of paramount importance that the United States continue to lead in international collaboration and engagement on AI, which you just alluded to, and I would say the voluntary standards that has been done at NIST, and that needs to continue to be done in some capacity somewhere. But if confirmed, NIST will be under your purview. And it’s been a vitally important, non regulatory, and is non regulatory agency, when it comes to us leadership on AI and, and focusing on voluntary standards rather than heavy handed regulations. So what are your thoughts on artificial intelligence and the role that the Department of Commerce should play in supporting continued innovation? And will you commit to continuing to support the great standards work being done at NIST?”
  • Lutnick: “I’m happy to support I think NIST has some of the greatest scientists in the world. And they understand AI technology, quantum technology, I mean, these, this is a central hub of knowledge of the American government, which I’m really excited to oversee. I think standards is the right model. As I’ve said, the the way we’ve done cybersecurity, which is the gold standard of the world, and everyone in the world follows our model, I think we should try to have a light touch model like that in AI, set those standards. So the world heats our standards, and goes with our standards would be very important for America, and something I’m going to try to drive.”

• Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC): “Are you concerned that in the US we’re focused, and perhaps even here in Congress, we’re focused on regulating our own AI activities at the expense of China taking the lead and unlocking AGI or artificial general intelligence before we do?”
  • Lutnick: “We were successful on the internet and created the greatest technology companies in the world because we had an American touch of it. Right? We did the internet the American way. And that’s why the tech companies of the world are ours. Right? We need to do the same thing with AI, we need to make sure we set standards that the world meets. So they’re American standards that the world meats, and I think that’s the way we’ll keep our lead to it the American way, which we know is the winning way. Our allies, though, is the winning way. And we need to set those standards.”

• Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-MO): “I think people many people have touched on AI. And I’m on armed services and commerce, you see kind of the military application, the commercial application. And I think a lot of people view it in separate buckets. But the truth is, for the Chinese Communist Party, everything’s dual use, everything is dual use, and civilizations have come and gone because they lose the technology race, in a military application. And I think that it’s what we’re talking about with a AI the energy that’s required to go do this and the innovation. We’re better innovators than them there. They copy pretty well, but what we can’t allow them to do is be better innovators than us and I think this DeepSeek has been mentioned. It’s possible. It’s possible that they’ve you know, use something called distillation which is they use what we do really well they ask a million, they have a algorithm that asks what we have a million questions, and essentially copy what we’ve done to gain the advantage that they, it’s possible. That’s one explanation for what we saw. But my hope is that it’s sort of a Sputnik moment for us that our focus is less about controlling this, which some of the proposals we’ve seen the last couple years are about controlling or locking in incumbents. I don’t think we need to do that. That’s the European model. But to really have real innovation here and not be distracted with sort of this, the woke AI, we saw this, you know, the black George Washington stuff. I mean, we cannot be distracted with this, like, this is the real deal. AI is the real race. And I know that you’re very focused on this, and you’ve talked about this. So I don’t want to ask you the same question. But just as it relates to locking in incumbents making sure we have really robust competition in this space.”
  • Lutnick: “We need to have the lead. We need to stay focused on it. We need to get the nonsense off the chart and just focus on raw, artificial intelligence making us the leader and have the standards that we are the leader. It is vital for us. And I think your points are very well made.”

• Sen. John Curtis (R-UT): “I’ve got a whole lot more to cover. I’m just going to kind of go quickly, we talked a lot about this Chinese model that’s been dealt to develop for artificial intelligence. And in supposedly, it’s been been done cheaper and better than the United States. Color me skeptical… And so my question is, like, how do we finally get to accountability for this, because I want a really productive relationship with China. But as long as there’s no accountability, we can’t have that. How does? How do you in your role, how do we get to accountability on this? And then second, can we acknowledge this is TikTok on steroids, right? If we’re worried about the influence of the CCP on America with TikTok, this is on steroids… It was earlier mentioned artificial intelligence Safety Institute, that’s, that’s underneath you. And if that is, it needs a new life or new legs, love to work with the Senate and yourself to give you the tools that you need to do exactly that.”
  • Lutnick: “Well, you laid that out when we talked in your office, and I’ll make sure that that is a key part of our studies, that we think about small businesses and the importers of those small businesses and how best to find our way to be acceptable to them in the model.”

• Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX): “All right, let’s turn to artificial intelligence. NIST is the non regulatory federal agency that and the lead National Laboratory for providing the measurements and standards that underpin US Commerce, success and the increasingly fierce competition for global leadership. And critical emerging technology like AI relies in part on how well each country’s respected firms and experts influence the development of technical standards. Unfortunately, under the Biden administration, NIST mission was undermined by the creation of the AI Safety Institute, which politicized AI standards. The AI Safety Institute took the worst lessons from the EU tech regulation, like requiring climate change assessments and quote, misinformation as part of quote measuring AI and its risks. When you are confirmed, will you return this focus to the scientific mission of measurement science, and ensure that NIS AI standard guidance is based on scientific technical standards, and not simply a Trojan horse for social policy? or importing the EU’s tech agenda?”
  • Lutnick: “Yes”

• Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA): “And I’ll let you turn to just one final subject here. Artificial Intelligence. AI has infiltrated every sector of our economy, we talked about this in my office, housing, health care, employment, the criminal justice system, social media, the list goes on, and on and on, it’s going to be our society. And while AI innovation is important, and we do want to use it, to potentially find a cure for cancer and other diseases, that would be great. But we also have to make sure that the AI age doesn’t supercharge pre existing bias, and discrimination in US study using super algorithms to look at people in our society and then make it easier to discriminate against them. And earlier this year, you seem to suggest that efforts to address discriminatory algorithms was quote nonsense. So I’d like to just have you expand a little bit. Is that accurate? Is that your view that as we move forward to ensure that AI algorithms don’t allow for greater discrimination on a society, that that’s not nonsense to have that as our goal?”
  • Lutnick: “I think AI standards set by America are fundamental. And we we should set fundamental standards, trying to be as I said, we were incredibly successful with the internet and our standards. And that created the greatness that is America and American technology. We are great the way we set standards in cyber. We’ve done a great job. It is the gold standard of the world. And I would like us to pursue it commerce standards and AI that are like that, which set the standard for the world.”

DeepSeek

• Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer delivered floor remarks, saying, “…DeepSeek unleashed something few could have imagined, an AI chatbot that runs more efficiently and was developed at much lower cost than U.S. AI chatbots. Within hours of DeepSeek’s announcement, their AI chatbot was the number one downloaded free app on Apple’s app store. And DeepSeek’s announcement makes it all but official: China is catching up with the U.S. on AI. It is a wakeup call that Congress desperately needs. If America falls behind China on AI, we will fall behind everywhere: economically, militarily, scientifically, educationally, everywhere. China’s innovation with DeepSeek is jarring, but it’s nothing compared to what will happen if China beats the U.S. on the ultimate goal of AGI, artificial general intelligence. We cannot, we must not allow that to happen. This is precisely why I made AI a top priority in the last Congress, with American innovation as my north star, and I will continue to do so. What we do now on AI – the actions we take, the ways and amounts we invest, the innovation we spur – will definitely define the next decade of this technology. I hope our bipartisan efforts on AI – which made some progress last year – will continue in an even more robust way this year. I stand ready to work with Republicans – this should be bipartisan – to pass the legislation and make the investments necessary for the U.S. to win.” (Press release)

• Schumer tweeted, “The DeepSeek announcement from China has been called by some AI’s “Sputnik moment” for America. It’s precisely why I made AI a top priority in the last Congress and will keep at it. Our competitors are going to use every single opportunity they get to overtake the US’s lead on the technologies of the future. We have to lead the way.”

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tweeted, “Anything vaguely related to AI was smashed Monday after investors spent the weekend frantically googling DeepSeek-R1, the low-cost Chinese AI model released last week”

• Cornyn also tweeted, “Tech stocks tumble as China’s DeepSeek sows doubts about AI spending”

• Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) Press Office tweeted, “DeepSeek fallout: Hawley seeks to cut off all US-China collaboration on AI development ‘Every dollar and gig of data that flows into Chinese AI are dollars and data that will ultimately be used against the United States,’ said Hawley.”

• House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority tweeted, “The fecklessness of the Biden administration helped create ‘ChatCCP.’ Under President Trump’s leadership, we will finally close export control loopholes and ensure America wins the global AI race.”

• Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) tweeted, “Let’s set the record straight—DeepSeek R1 is another digital arm of the Chinese Communist Party. The AI algorithm censors any critique of the Party and President Xi. Leave it to China to continue its notorious propaganda machine in the digital age.”

• Green also tweeted, “If the Commander-in-Chief’s job is to protect our physical and digital borders, then President Biden utterly failed. His flimsy trade policy did not stop Communist China from advancing its own AI projects, which should seriously concern our nation’s digital defenders.”

• Green also tweeted, “Americans signing up for an AI program of PRC origin are entrusting their data with a system outside our nation’s protection. Cyberattacks on these open-source models are just the beginning.”

• Green also tweeted, “Former President Biden bears a heavy responsibility for failing to adequately address China’s AI development.”

• Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) tweeted, “AI chatbot DeepSeek is another CCP tool to censor information and promote propaganda. The U.S. must lead in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence so our values, our data, and our freedoms are protected.”

• Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) tweeted, “If you’re not first, you’re last. If America isn’t prepared to adapt to AI, China will take full advantage.”

• Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) tweeted, “Congress has to rise above partisanship to create guardrails around AI that addresses risk and supports safe innovation. This rapidly changing technology and industry requires our attention to get it right.”

• Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) tweeted, “If you’re wondering why Trump’s Stargate program matters so much, here’s the bottom line: The Chinese Communist Party—already expanding its influence through the Belt and Road Initiative—has developed DeepSeek, an AI platform that rivals our best models despite using lower-quality hardware.  If the CCP wins the AI race, we can expect the suppression of truth on a global scale. America needs to stay ahead of our Chinese adversaries if we want to preserve freedom.”

Miscellaneous

• Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) delivered floor remarks, saying, “Another is increased demand – like increasing demand for electricity being driven by artificial intelligence data centers. It takes roughly 10 times as much electricity to run a ChatGPT query as it takes to run a Google search. Think about that. Imagine the energy demands of AI at scale. Anyone who thinks we can be on the leading edge in new technology with less – or less reliable – energy should think again. We need more energy, and the good news is: we have it. In fact, we have the resources to be energy dominant. But we need to start saying ‘yes’ to American energy.” (Press release)

• Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) tweeted, “2/3rds of Medicare beneficiaries are living with two or more chronic illnesses, accounting for over 90% of Medicare spending. With AI advancements in health care, we can work toward a cure for many of these diseases – improving the quality of life for Americans and saving taxpayer dollars at the same time. Grateful President Trump agrees that AI can have a positive outcome on our country, and that we need to prioritize its development now.”

• House Foreign Affairs Dems tweeted, “Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (TSMC) makes the chips for Americans’ computers, iPhones and AI systems. Trump’s Tariffs on TSMC will raise prices on US consumers, cede our edge in AI and weaken Taiwan—all gifts to China.”

• Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) tweeted, “As Co-Chair of the National Labs Caucus, I’m proud of the strategic partnership between LosAlamosNatLab & Open AI. This partnership will help LANL continue to develop cutting-edge tech & advance our national security, driving innovation right here in NM.”

• Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) tweeted, “Billionaire Mukesh Ambani is planning to build what may become the world’s biggest data center in Modi’s home state in India to capitalize on growing AI demand”

• Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) issued a press release regarding a roundtable he convened on the future of quantum technology at the Chicago Quantum Exchange at the University of Chicago’s William Eckhardt Research Center, saying, “Federal investment in transformative technology like quantum computing is essential for the United States to maintain its competitive edge, including against strategic competitors, like the Chinese Communist Party. With the pioneering efforts of the Chicago Quantum Exchange and the University of Chicago, Illinois is positioned to lead the country, as well as the world, in groundbreaking research and innovation. It’s crucial that we continue to encourage partnerships to strengthen our quantum workforce and build an economy of the future that sets the global standard.” (Press release)

• Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) tweeted, “The United States must lead the way in advancing AI technology—it’s a matter of national and economic security. I’m grateful President Trump is already working to restore our edge in this sector, but the damage under the Biden-Harris administration has already been done. As we harness AI’s potential, we must make cyber defense a top national security priority.”

• Rep. Nikki Budzinski (D-IL) tweeted, “AI has immense potential for agriculture, with digital innovations to help farmers increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve sustainability. I loved seeing some of these new technologies in action at DigitalAgUIUC!”

About Zero One Strategies

Zero One Strategies is a boutique government relations practice dedicated to navigating the complex landscape of U.S. federal policy in emerging technologies. As advancements in technology continue to outpace regulatory frameworks, Zero One Strategies aims to provide strategic guidance and bipartisan advocacy for innovators and businesses operating at the forefront of technological development.

The practice focuses on key areas such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, decentralized technologies, cybersecurity, data, and digital infrastructure, as well as the multiple policy issues impacting these sectors, including tax and financial services.

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