Extinction risk and present harmsPublic officeChair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs6 entries on the record

Josh Hawley

US Senator from Missouri who asks whether AI will be the printing press or the atom bomb, co-authors bipartisan bills to license and test advanced models, and opposed federal preemption of state AI laws.

Roles

9 Jan 2017 – 3 Jan 2019Attorney General of Missouri, State of MissouriSource →
3 Jan 2019 – presentUnited States Senator from Missouri, United States SenateRe-elected in November 2024; current term runs to January 2031. Opposed the 2025 congressional moratorium on state AI laws.Source →
2023 – Jan 2025Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the JudiciaryCo-led the 2023 "Oversight of AI" hearings with Chair Richard Blumenthal.Source →
2025 – presentChair, Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, United States Senate Committee on the JudiciaryHeld the September 2025 hearing on harm from AI chatbots and the August 2026 hearing on AI surveillance pricing.Source →
Feb 2025 – presentChair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsChair for the 119th Congress; the start date is the earliest attestation, the HSGAC subcommittee-assignment release of 6 February 2025 as cited by Wikipedia, and the 9 September 2026 letter to OpenAI carries the title in its signature block.Source →

On the record

9 Sept 2026 · Open letter · Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee on Disaster Management
Such evidence of autonomous collusion and subversion of human oversight is alarming enough, but greater still is the evidence that OpenAI knew that the AI agents were exhibiting rogue behavior and let the evaluations continue anyway. … This is reckless.
Chair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at the time
Opening the subcommittee's investigation into the July 2026 breakout of OpenAI agents that breached Hugging Face; the letter says the probe will also cover "growing allegations of the existential risk of new AI products" and gives Altman until 1 October 2026 to answer sixteen questions. Released 10 September under the headline "Chairman Hawley Launches Investigation into OpenAI for Hacking, Existential Risk of AI Products"; the source is the letter PDF as hosted by CyberScoop.
Letter to Sam Altman, Chief Executive Officer, OpenAI →
4 Aug 2026 · Speech · Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism
AI surveillance pricing is the unholy trinity of everything Americans hate: spying on people, ripping them off, and taking away jobs.
Chair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at the time
Opening statement at a hearing on AI-driven personalised pricing; the release is dated 5 August 2026 and describes the hearing as held the day before.
ICYMI: Hawley Exposes Predatory AI Surveillance Pricing, Consumer Data Harvesting in Subcommittee Hearing →
29 Sept 2025 · Statement · Office of Senator Josh Hawley
As Big Tech companies continue to develop new generations of artificial intelligence, the wide-ranging risks of their technology continue to grow unchecked and underreported. Simply stated, Congress must not allow our national security, civil liberties, and labor protections to take a back seat to AI.
Chair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at the time
On the Artificial Intelligence Risk Evaluation Act (S. 2938), which would block deployment of advanced models until they clear a federal evaluation of loss-of-control and weaponization risk.
Hawley, Blumenthal Introduce Bipartisan AI Evaluation Legislation to Put Americans First →
18 Sept 2025 · Open letter · Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism
These harms are the predictable result of the same playbook that many tech corporations used with respect to social media: maximize engagement at the expense of child safety.
Chair, Subcommittee on Disaster Management, District of Columbia, and Census, United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at the time
Letters to Character.AI, Google, Meta, OpenAI and Snap after parents testified that chatbots had groomed their children toward suicide; the letter ends "children are dead. Families are broken. Congress will not look the other way."
Hawley Expands Investigation, Demands Documents from Big Tech on AI Chatbot Policies after Hearing →
7 Jun 2023 · Statement · Office of Senator Josh Hawley
Congress can and should act to protect Americans’ privacy, stave off the harms of unchecked AI development, insulate kids from harmful impacts, and keep this valuable technology out of the hands of our adversaries
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the time
Five principles including a private right of action against AI companies and a licensing system for generative AI developers.
Hawley Announces Guiding Principles for Future AI Legislation →
16 May 2023 · Speech · Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law
Is it gonna be like the printing press that diffused knowledge, power, and learning widely across the landscape… Or is it gonna be more like the atom bomb, huge technological breakthrough, but the consequences severe, terrible, continue to haunt us to this day?
Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary at the time
Opening remarks at the hearing where Sam Altman testified.
Transcript: Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Oversight of AI →