January 20, 2025

This week decoded

With today’s inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Trump-Vance Administration officially begins. During the final week of the Biden-Harris Administration, work on emerging tech-related guidance continued out of the White House and executive branches. Then-President Joe Biden signed executive orders on cybersecurity and AI data centers, and Commerce issued their AI Diffusion rule. The AISI within NIST published a notice seeking comments on updates to guidance on Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models. The CFPB is seeking information on the monetization of consumer financial data.

Emerging tech policy was the topic of Congressional questioning in multiple Senate hearings to consider the confirmation of President Trump’s cabinet nominees.

The Senate Banking Chair and Ranking Member released separate priorities for their committee leadership in the 119^th Congress, including a focus on AI. The House Judiciary Committee added artificial intelligence to the name of its Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet, under the leadership of chair Darrell Issa (R-CA) and ranking member Hank Johnson (D-GA).

Read more below

Congress

Hearings

• Last week
  • On January 14, the Senate Armed Services Committee will consider the nomination of Peter Hegseth to be Defense Secretary.
  • On January 15, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of SD Gov. Kristi Noem to be Homeland Security Secretary.
  • On January 15, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Chris Wright to be Energy Secretary.
  • On January 16, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination of Scott Bessent to be Treasury Secretary.
• This week
  • On January 22, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing on Unconstrained Actors: Assessing Global Cyber Threats to the Homeland.

Legislation

• Rep. Rick Allen (R-GA) introduced H.R. 334 The Creating Legal and Ethical AI Recordings (CLEAR) Voices Act to amend the Communications Act of 1934 to establish technical and procedural standards for artificial or prerecorded voice systems created through generative artificial intelligence (genAI). (Text)(Press release)

Correspondence

• There was no relevant correspondence this week.

Reports

• Senate Banking Chair Tim Scott (R-SC) released his Banking Committee Priorities for 119^th Congress, including “Under Chairman Scott, the committee will foster resilience in critical supply chains, combat illicit finance in transnational criminal organizations, and increase preparedness for advancements in cyber threats and artificial intelligence.” (Priorities)

• Senate Banking Ranking Member Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) published her Banking Committee priorities as an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, entitled, “If Trump Wants to Unrig the Economy, I’m In” including “…we can establish common-sense rules for artificial intelligence, blockchain technology and FinTech to promote stability and ensure that innovation serves all consumers, investors and business—not only billionaires and big banks, and certainly not terrorists.” (Op-ed)

Biden-Harris Administration

White House

• President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure, to “direct the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to lease federal sites where the private sector can build frontier AI infrastructure at speed and scale.” The EO also will prioritize AI infrastructure permitting on federal sites, facilitate interconnection of AI infrastructure to the electric grid, and procure clean energy generation resources and semiconductors for data centers. (Executive Order) (Statement)

• President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order on Strengthening and Promoting Innovation in the Nation’s Cybersecurity to improve software security supply chains, combat cybercrime and fraud through digital identity, and utilize AI tools. (Executive Order)(Fact sheet)

Department of Commerce

• The Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) published interim final rule Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion, revising the Export Administration Regulations’ controls on advanced computing integrated circuits, adding a new control on AI model weights for certain advanced closed-weight dual-use AI models, adding new license exceptions, and updating the Data Center Validated End User authorization to facilitate the export and transfer of advanced computing to end users in destinations that do not raise national security or foreign policy concerns. (Rule)(White House fact sheet)(Press release)

• The Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) within the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) published a notice seeking comments on updates to guidance on Managing Misuse Risk for Dual-Use Foundation Models. The comment period ends March 15. (Notice)

• The government members of the Global Coalition on Telecommunications (GCOT) released their first GCOT Principles on AI Adoption in the Telecommunications Industry to “inform the application of AI to network operations just as such efforts are poised for rapid growth.” (Report)(Press release)

• The Commerce Data Governance Board released a report entitledGenerative AI and Open Data: Guidelines and Best Practices to provide guidance to Department of Commerce’s entities in the development of generative AI-ready open data assets. (Report)(Press release)

Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)

• CISA published a Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative (JCDC) Artificial Intelligence (AI) Cybersecurity Collaboration Playbook to provide guidance to AI providers, developers, and adopters on “how to voluntarily share information related to incidents and vulnerabilities associated with AI systems; clearly explain the actions CISA may take after receiving shared information; [and] facilitate collaboration to raise awareness of AI cybersecurity risks across critical infrastructure, enhancing the security and resilience of AI technologies.” (Report)(Fact sheet)(Press release)

Department of Energy

• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory released their 2024 Report on U.S. Data Center Energy Use finding “data center load growth has tripled over the past decade and is projected to double or triple by 2028. U.S. electricity demand is projected to account for data center expansion and the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) applications, domestic manufacturing growth, and electrification of different industries… data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023 and are expected to consume approximately 6.7 to 12% of total U.S. electricity by 2028…total data center electricity usage climbed from 58 TWh in 2014 to 176 TWh in 2023 and estimates an increase between 325 to 580 TWh by 2028.” (Press release)(Report)

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)

• The CFPB published a Request for Information Regarding the Collection, Use, and Monetization of Consumer Payment and Other Personal Financial Dataseeking comments on “how companies that offer or provide consumer financial products or services collect, use, share, and protect consumers’ personal financial data, such as data harvested from consumer payments.” The comment period ends April 11. (Notice)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• The FTC issued a staff report detailing key findings and issues to watch regarding corporate partnerships and investments between the largest cloud service providers and the most prominent generative AI developers. (Report)(Press release)

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)

• The USPTO published an Artificial Intelligence Strategy to “advance the development of IP policies that promote inclusive AI innovation and creativity; build best-in-class AI capabilities by investing in computational infrastructure, data resources, and business-driven product development; promote the responsible use of AI within the USPTO and across the broader innovation ecosystem; develop AI expertise within the USPTO’s workforce; and collaborate with other U.S. government agencies, international partners, and the public on shared AI priorities.” (Press release)(Report)

U.S. Access Board

• The U.S. Access Board presented initial findings on Developing Artificial Intelligence Equity, Access and Inclusion for All. (Presentation)

Trump – Vance Transition

• Politico reports security expert Alexei Bulazel will be named to lead the Office of the National Cyber Director and the NSC. Bulazel served on the staff of the NSC in the first Trump Administration. (Politico)

• In his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing, Secretary of State-nominee Marco Rubio said, “… it’s almost a blueprint in many ways of how we can create consortium like partnership with nation states that are allied to us to confront some of these global challenges, be it in the defense realm and the technology realm, in the critical minerals realm, in the sensitive technologies and critical technologies on for example, artificial intelligence and advances and in even quantum computing, this obviously is more defense related. But it’s one example of how we can leverage the power of these partnerships with allies to these countries, in some cases, broader and others to reach outcomes and objectives such as creating a geopolitical and strategic balance in the Indo Pacific region and beyond.”

• In her confirmation hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Department of Homeland Security Secretary-nominee Gov. Kristi Noem said CISA “needs to be much more effective, smaller, more nimble to really fulfill their mission.” (Politico)

• In his confirmation hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Energy Secretary-nominee Chris Wright was asked about powering artificial intelligence by Chair Mike Lee (R-UT), Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Sens. Steve Daines (R-MT) and Dave McCormick (R-PA), to whom he responded, “We want to build a new American industry in artificial intelligence. And we want to lead the world in that industry. And boy, for our economic and national security, we better it’s you can’t build any new industry without the energy to support it. So this you have this vision, that’s a great coming together of a new manufacturing industry, to manufacture intelligence, and use the energy resources you have in Pennsylvania, and attract the private investment capital to make it happen. I’m all in on that.”

Noteworthy Quotes and Events

ADMINISTRATION

White House

• National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan took press questions on communication between the Biden White House and the Trump transition team on key actions, including on AI, and continuity on national priorities, stating,
  • “I’m not going to say we coordinated it, but we informed them of what we intended to do, because we are trying to maintain transparency through the transition and share with them the actions that we are taking in advance so that they aren’t surprised by any of them. That also goes for the AI diffusion rule. Again, not coordinated — and I’m not — I don’t want to suggest that. But we were — we were transparent with them about the steps in that regard. We have been working on that issue for going on a year now. It is a complicated question, because we’re trying to strike the right balance between ensuring that the frontier of AI stays in the United States of America and our close allies while also ensuring that the rest of the world can benefit from AI and get the hardware that they need to power AI applications going forward. So, that balance required a huge amount of work and back-and-forth and many principals’ meetings, conversations with the president. It ultimately came together towards the end, but we’ve been telegraphing for some time that this rule was coming, and the key for us was making sure that we had it in place. But we also set up a hundred-and-twenty-day comment period so that we’re not putting the next administration in a position where they immediately have to start moving out. They can take comments and they can make judgments at that point about what the best way forward is. We think this is, in a bipartisan spirit, the way to best preserve and protect America’s lead when it comes to artificial intelligence.”
  • “The Biden administration put forward the first international set of standards on artificial intelligence, codified by the U.N. General Assembly. There’s more work to be done on that front. The Biden administration has made the investments to ensure we have the lead in AI right now. But if it’s China, not the United States, determining the future of AI on the planet, I think that is — the stakes of that are just profound. And so, I hope that the new administration — because this shouldn’t be a partisan issue at all — sees that challenge and that opportunity and seizes it so that it’s America making technology work for us, rather than adversaries make technology work against us.”
  • “…if you think about the series of concerns that are raised by the advent of artificial intelligence, they range across economic, military, and social risks. One of those is bias. And there have been a lot of studies to show that bias is a genuine challenge when it comes to artificial intelligence and the ways in which that could undermine social cohesion in the United States and globally; has national security impli — and — and terrorism — has national security implications and is something that we have to contend with.” (Remarks)

• On her last day at the White House, Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, said, “It has been deeply fulfilling to see the countries who’ve been calling over the previous weeks to say ‘the Counter Ransomware Initiative is the most successful partnership we’re involved with,’ They’ll say to us, ‘because it’s coordinated policy together, it’s providing real capacity building, it’s helping us to create a network of relationships.’” (Politico)

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

• In an interview with Politico, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said, “I would have liked to have gotten more done with regard to artificial intelligence. This is the most transformative technology of our time — every bit as the Internet in the 90s, possibly more so. And I think we set the stage. When I came in office, we were talking about gamification, what to do about it [and] whether people were using behavioral prompts in a way that was not compliant with their fiduciary duties. I would have liked to have done more there.” (Politico)

Treasury Department

• Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen concluded remarks at the New York Association for Business Economics, Reflecting on the Biden-Harris Administration’s Economic Record, saying, “America is faced with exceptional challenges in the years ahead. These include climate change, the possibility of future pandemics, and continued global conflict and fragility, all of which threaten to undermine global economic growth. At the same time, rapid technological innovation, including through artificial intelligence, will create both costs and benefits and has the potential to profoundly reshape the economic landscape. I believe that the strength of the U.S. economic recovery has put us on solid ground to navigate these challenges and to capture the benefits from the opportunities that are sure to unfold. This was far from inevitable. The U.S. economy is uniquely strong compared to what might have been. In the years to come, it is crucial that sound economic policymaking sustain this momentum to the benefit of millions of Americans.” (Prepared Remarks)

CONGRESS

• Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) tweeted, “National security isn’t just about who has the most tanks, ships, guns, or planes… it’s who’s leading the tech competition, and who has the advantage in AI, quantum computing, and more. Every day, I work to ensure America has that advantage.”

• Rep. Brittany Pettersen (D-CO) tweeted, “As a member of the bipartisan AI Task Force, we held multiple hearings and met with over a hundred experts. I’m proud to help release this report that outlines guardrails while ensuring the US remains a global leader.”

• Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) tweeted, “Today, the FTC has taken decisive action to expand protections for our kids online. The final rule safeguards kids from targeted advertisements, reins in the sale of their data, and includes new measures to secure the biometric data of our children. I’m also glad that companies will be required to minimize the data they are collecting and saving about kids. This is crucial given the many data breaches that have occurred, on top of the growing use of kids’ data for AI. Everyone, especially our kids, deserve safety online.”

• Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) tweeted, “From deployment of next generation networks to managing AI—Energy Commerce Communications & Technology subcommittee is positioned to spearhead the policy that will shape the future. I’m honored to be reelected as Ranking Member by my Democratic colleagues.”

• House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats tweeted, “RM Gregory Meeks: US UN Amb Thomas-Greenfield, your work has advanced our global leadership; from holding Russia accountable for its illegal invasion of Ukraine & advancing global AI policy to addressing humanitarian crises in Gaza, Sudan & Haiti. Thank you for your service.”

• On the Biden Executive Order on AI Data Centers, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) tweeted, “Expanding AI infrastructure shouldn’t lead to increased home energy costs and fossil fuel buildout. Glad this EO echoed my Artificial Intelligence Environmental Impacts Act: the government should study AI’s impacts on our planet to help prevent them.”

• On the AI Diffusion rule, Rep. Deborah Ross (D-NC) tweeted, “Increasingly, we’re seeing the power that AI has for good, but we must regulate it properly. The Biden admin’s new AI rules will protect US supply chains from national security threats while enhancing our competitiveness on the global stage.”

• Sen. John Cornyn retweeted a Financial Times article, tweeting, “AI set to fuel surge in new US gas power plants.”
  
  

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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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