Government & Communications

Advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities make our Nation stronger, but also introduce new national security considerations that require coordinated action across executive departments and agencies (agencies), and components.

As electric cooperatives descend upon Washington (DC) for their fifth-annual Broadband Leadership Summit, they bring with them a number of policy priorities and concerns. Among those is their growing distress at the direction of the federal government's $42 billion Broadband Equity Access and Deployment (BEAD) Program.

A Chinese company has been trying to develop artificial intelligence-powered technology that would enable authoritarian governments to not just monitor dissidents but also potentially predict who could become one in the future.

On May 29, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget proposes to revise the Guidance for Federal Financial Assistance. The proposals might be among the most consequential changes to federal grant administration in more than a decade, particularly in the breadth of its policy conditions.

Rep Valerie Foushee (D-NC-04) introduced the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act, which would establish a federal grant program through the U.S. Department of Commerce to modernize the technology infrastructure utilized by state and local governments to improve security and efficacy of public services. Specifically, the State and Local Public Sector Innovation Act would:

In the near future, a handful of AI platforms could shape the way that billions of people see the world. Already, there is evidence that large language models (LLMs)—today’s preeminent form of AI—are persuading some users to change their views. This has generated fears about chatbots’ potential to spread state propaganda. Such anxieties generally center on the prospect of major AI labs consciously designing their LLMs to favor pro-regime perspectives while suppressing dissident ones.

The artificial intelligence industry’s push for tech-friendly federal legislation is foundering in Washington. So OpenAI’s top lobbyist and political strategist is pursuing a backup strategy—setting national AI policy by waging a state-by-state campaign. Chris Lehane calls the plan “reverse federalism”: With Capitol Hill deadlocked, the company behind ChatGPT is increasingly spending its time lobbying for state legislatures to pass laws on AI safety that the industry can live with.

If you fail to properly diagnose the problem, you will fail in your abilities to solve the problem. The same is true for the digital divide, which continues to impact millions of unserved and underserved communities across the nation. The Federal Communications Commission is once again invoking the term ‘streamlining’ as justification for creating a permission structure that allows providers to evade accountability while consumers experience the consequences of distorted broadband maps.

In July 2025, the Trump administration released its blueprint for artificial intelligence—America’s AI Action Plan—with a focus on deregulation and infrastructure investment to achieve “global AI dominance.” The plan represents a notable shift from previous, more cautious AI policies of the Biden era and emphasizes removing regulatory barriers and “ideological” bias in AI.