Maria Cantwell

United States Senator for Washington and ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee, who welcomes the sudden Republican urgency on AI safety rules but says meaningful legislation would make the most powerful models undergo testing by scientists at the national laboratories to assess whether they could enable sophisticated cyberattacks or aid the development of biological or nuclear weapons.

Roles

3 Jan 2001 – presentUnited States Senator from Washington, United States SenateDemocrat.Source →
3 Feb 2021 – 3 Jan 2025Chair, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States SenateSource →
3 Jan 2025 – presentRanking Member, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States SenateAlso held the same position from 3 January 2019 to 3 February 2021; Ted Cruz holds the chair.Source →

On the record

11 Sept 2026 · Post · X
Republicans are suddenly waking up to the urgent need for tough AI safety rules, a sharp reversal from last year when House Republicans and Chairman Cruz tried to impose a 10-year moratorium on state AI regulations that the tech bros wanted. I welcome the urgency. … Meaningful legislation would require the most powerful AI models undergo testing by scientists and experts at our national laboratories to assess whether they could enable sophisticated cyberattacks or aid the development of biological or nuclear weapons.
Ranking Member, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate at the time
Opposing the Thune–Cruz–Klobuchar frontier-AI bill's self-testing framework, which she would replace with mandatory vetting by the national labs and national security agencies. Sourced to the outlet that reproduces the post rather than to x.com; the date is the one printed on that page, which dates the post itself only as "on Thursday". The ellipsis stands where the page prints an attribution tag (“," Cantwell posted. "”).
Lawmakers clash on safety testing language for in-development AI legislation, people familiar say →