Senate clears wave of bipartisan bills; AI debate dominates committee rooms

The Mystic Alerts Act, enabling wireless emergency alerts via satellite when cellular networks fail, cleared the Senate unanimously and heads to the president's desk. Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., said the bill addresses a specific failure: "More than 130 people were tragically killed in the July 4th floods that ravaged Central Texas last year, many of whom did not receive emergency alerts due to compromised cellular networks that were knocked out by the storm."

The Clergy Act — allowing faith leaders who previously opted out of Social Security to re-enroll — also passed unanimously. Sen. Katie Boyd Britt, R-Ala., who led the bill with Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., said: "Members of the clergy are pillars of so many communities across our nation. They should have the opportunity to enroll back in Social Security, and now they will."

The Floodplain Enhancement and Recovery Act, introduced by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., passed and awaits the House. Murray called it "a commonsense, zero-cost fix that will cut red tape and allow critical restoration projects in Washington state to move forward." Daines said the bill addresses FEMA's "onerous and costly 'No Rise' rule" that had caused critical restoration projects in Montana to be abandoned.

The Senate also cleared the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act, co-sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, and Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. "The Great Lakes are an environmental and economic asset for the United States," Husted said. "We must remain vigilant against invasive species and continue protecting our lakes so they can support Ohio and America for generations to come."

The Taxpayer Assistance and Service Act passed the Senate unanimously on September 30 and now heads to the House. Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., included two measures in the package: one aligning the farmer tax-filing deadline with the standard April 15 date, and another requiring the IRS to track how often it asks taxpayers to resubmit documents. "Nobody enjoys filing their taxes, but what makes it even worse is how cumbersome and illogical our tax system is, particular for farmers," Smith said.

Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., also applauded the bill's passage, noting it incorporates provisions from the Improving IRS Customer Service Act. "Taxpayers should get the help they need without a fight," Cassidy said. "This package gives the American people a stronger voice and makes help easier to access."

A Senate Homeland Security subcommittee hearing titled "Rogue AI: Securing the Homeland Against AI Agent Attacks" drew pointed questioning from Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., who pressed witnesses on how quickly AI models might begin communicating in ways humans cannot understand. Apollo Research CEO Marius Hobbhahn responded that models could reach that point in as little as 12 months, and that researchers have no reliable solution yet. Gallego quoted Hobbhahn's testimony and added his own warning: "Once these agents start speaking their language, they will not be detectable in China or America. Is there a sandbox that says, 'Please attack the United States, but do not attack any Chinese interests'? [...] Is there a sandbox that can hold? No. That should scare the shit out of people."

Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., also questioned witnesses at the same hearing, focused on threats to children and seniors. "We cannot allow Congress to stall, cross its fingers, and hope that everything pans out for the best, because the dark side of AI is being utilized to scam seniors, facilitate addictive algorithms, and steal the image and likeness of our children," Moody said.

Separately, Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., announced the AI Agent Accountability Act, which would hold AI operators and developers criminally and civilly liable for hacking incidents under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. "These AI agents are committing cyberattacks. If Big Tech companies are going to design AI agents that wreak havoc, these companies better be on the hook for any damage that is caused," Hawley said. Murphy added: "Hacking is a crime, and when AI agents conduct dangerous cyberattacks, the corporations and executives responsible for those AI agents need to be held accountable."

In an op-ed published in The Free Press, Sens. David McCormick, R-Pa., and John Fetterman, D-Pa., framed the AI debate around what they called three inescapable realities: "the inevitability of the AI revolution; the existential stakes of the AI race with China; and the limits of our understanding of the technology." They endorsed voluntary accords from Tuesday's White House AI summit as "a positive starting point, but more will be required."

Senate Republicans blocked Sen. Jeff Merkley's ETHICS Act — which would ban members of Congress, the president, the vice president, and their immediate families from buying, selling, and holding stocks — on a party-line procedural vote Wednesday. Merkley issued a statement Thursday blasting the outcome and the Republican alternative. "Rather than crack down on Congressional stock trading, Senate Republicans not only blocked my comprehensive legislation to ban this deeply corrupt practice, but they also put up a partisan, fatally flawed bill that doesn't cover the President and would only prevent members of Congress from buying stocks, allowing them to still sell and hold stocks and perpetuating a clear conflict of interest," he said. Merkley said he had been pressing for a ban since 2012 and urged colleagues to pursue "meaningful and decisive action."

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., led 19 Democratic senators in urging the Trump administration to nearly double emergency heating assistance funding to $7 billion for LIHEAP, citing energy cost spikes tied to the U.S.-Iran conflict. "As the cost of home heating skyrockets across the country due to the illegal and unconstitutional War in Iran, we urge you to request an emergency appropriation of at least $3 billion for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program," the senators wrote. They warned that "senior citizens on fixed incomes, working families with kids, and people with disabilities are at serious risk of going cold this winter."

The letter cited reports that heating oil costs are up roughly 60 percent since military operations against Iran began, adding an estimated $800 in costs for families using heating oil this winter. "Being able to heat your home in the freezing cold is not a luxury. It is a matter of life and death," the senators concluded.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., led six colleagues in a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services raising concerns about child care program cuts under the Trump administration. "These actions raise fresh concerns about the extent to which the current administration is further destabilizing the country's already fragile child care system, increasing child care costs for families and making care harder to come by," the lawmakers wrote.

The letter specifically cited the overhaul of Head Start, elimination of ACF offices, and rollback of affordability rules. "The administration's harmful changes and cut-first, think-later approach raise our concern that ACF shares President Trump's view that 'we can't take care of day care' and that you are not taking the child care affordability and availability crisis seriously," the senators continued. The senators set an October 14 deadline for ACF to respond.

Both Nevada senators used the ninth anniversary of the October 1, 2017, Las Vegas mass shooting to call for renewed gun legislation. In a floor statement, Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., recounted the attack and called on Congress to act. "This year alone, the United States has seen more than 350, 350, mass shootings," Rosen said. "We are not powerless in Congress. We can do something about the scourge of gun..."

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., issued a separate statement. "On October 1, 2017, the city of Las Vegas, the state of Nevada, and the entire United States were shaken to their cores when 58 people were killed and nearly 500 were injured at the Route 91 Harvest Music Festival," she said. "Nine years later, we are still Vegas Strong."

Two sets of Republican senator pairs applauded Trump administration judicial nominations Thursday. Sens. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and Ted Budd, R-N.C., praised the nominations of Brian S. Meyers to the Eastern District of North Carolina and Philip L. Aubart to the Middle District — both recommended by the two senators. "Both are highly qualified attorneys who respect the rule of law and are committed to upholding the Constitution," Tillis said.

Sens. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., backed the Fifth Circuit nomination of G. Todd Butler. "Todd Butler is an excellent pick for the federal bench. He believes in interpreting the law as it is written, pursuant to the text and original meaning of the Constitution — exactly the quality that should characterize a jurist," said Wicker and Hyde-Smith in their joint statement.

Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., introduced two bills directing the SEC to identify and suspend Chinese Communist Party military companies from trading on U.S. exchanges. "Communist China's military companies want to use U.S. markets and exchanges to fund the CCP's efforts to attack our way of life using dollars from American investors," Scott said.

Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Neb., joined Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Ted Budd, R-N.C., in a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche requesting a DOJ investigation into Chinese transnational criminal organizations operating illegal cannabis enterprises. "We write requesting that the Department of Justice (DOJ) investigate the growing role of Chinese transnational criminal organizations in America's cannabis and intoxicating-hemp markets," the senators wrote.

At the Nixon Foundation's Grand Strategy Summit, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., delivered a lengthy speech on U.S.-China competition, warning about China's accelerating AI and biotech ecosystems. "If you look at clinical trial starts globally last year. The United States was at 45 percent a few years ago. It dropped down to 35 percent. China has come from nowhere to last year with 32 percent," Daines said.

Sens. John Curtis, R-Utah, and Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., introduced companion legislation — the Data Center Transparency Act and the Data Center Community Empowerment Act — to require federal reporting on data centers' environmental and energy footprints and to give communities independent technical assistance when evaluating proposed projects. "Americans are rightly skeptical when a large company tells them not to worry about the impacts of a new data center in their community," Curtis said. "The answer to that distrust is transparency."

Blunt Rochester framed the bills around community health and equity: "There are legitimate concerns about how these projects could raise utility bills, harm our environment, or impact public health. These bills are a necessary step toward creating a safer, more inclusive, and more informed process." The Data Center Transparency Act would require EPA to update data on water consumption, utility costs, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions every three months.

Two bipartisan health awareness resolutions cleared the Senate on or around Thursday. The Senate unanimously passed a resolution by Sens. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Cory Booker, D-N.J., designating September 2026 as Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month. "New gene therapies should give us all hope, but we still have significant hurdles to overcome to ensure every American battling SCD has the opportunity to live out their American Dream," Scott said.

Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Deb Fischer, R-Neb., applauded unanimous passage of their resolution recognizing September as PCOS Awareness Month. "One in ten women in the United States are affected by PCOS, but many don't even know they have it," Warren said. "We must keep pushing for more research, better and more personalized treatments, and a cure." Fischer noted that PCOS "is the leading cause of infertility" and the resolution underscores "the need for more research and accessible treatment."

Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., submitted a formal complaint Wednesday to the Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility calling for the disbarment of former special counsel Jack Smith. Hagerty alleges Smith withheld critical information from a federal court in connection with the Arctic Frost investigation, which resulted in a nondisclosure order that prevented Hagerty and colleagues from challenging what he called an unconstitutional collection of their phone records. "Jack Smith's lack of candor before a federal tribunal directly resulted in injury to the United States Congress," Hagerty said. "The Board should investigate and pursue the most serious remedy possible — disbarment — in light of the gravity of Smith's intentional conduct."

Funding for the Secure Rural Schools program expired September 30. The day after the lapse, Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., joined Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, both R-Idaho, in introducing a three-year extension. Merkley called the program "crucial payments that are a lifeline for rural communities here in Oregon and across America — keeping schools open, maintaining roads, restoring watersheds, and providing funding for police officers and firefighters to keep families safe."

Wyden, who co-authored the original SRS law in 2000, warned the pattern of repeated lapses was unsustainable. "The well-being of rural America shouldn't be dependent on Congress getting its act together to renew this funding every few years," Wyden said. "It's past time to get rural communities off the financial rollercoaster and deliver a permanent funding solution."

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., led Sens. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., along with six colleagues, in demanding the Trump administration abandon a proposed IRS rule that would block up to 700,000 DACA and TPS recipients from claiming tax credits. "According to your own estimates, the proposed rule change could affect up to 700,000 taxpayers," the senators wrote to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and IRS CEO Frank Bisignano. "This would include more than 300,000 individuals living in households with a DACA recipient, two-thirds of whom are U.S. citizens."

The letter argued the administration lacks legal authority to make the change by regulation: "The Administration has no legal authority to change congressionally enacted tax law via regulation... Since the passage of PRWORA in 1996, no federal agency has interpreted refundable tax credits as federal public benefits restricted to qualified immigrants." The senators concluded: "The proposed rule is clear regulatory overreach that would have disastrous impacts for lawfully present immigrants and their families who are legally eligible for refundable tax credits."

Signals

• volumeToday's 46 releases ran 42% below the Thursday average of 79.4, the lowest relative volume for a Thursday in the current tracking window — four days before a pre-election recess.
• recessThe Senate's pre-election state work period begins in four days; Thursday's sprint of floor passages is consistent with a chamber clearing the decks before recess.
• coordinatedThree separate releases from Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del. — on data center legislation, World Menopause Awareness Month, and 529 savings accounts — appeared within roughly two hours, suggesting a coordinated rollout of multiple bill introductions.
• coordinatedFive or more senators converged on AI governance in a single day across a committee hearing, a new liability bill, and a bipartisan op-ed — the broadest single-day AI legislative cluster in the current tracking window.
• silent breaksSen. Roger F. Wicker, R-Miss., has been silent for 71 days but appears as a co-signer in Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's release on the Todd Butler Fifth Circuit nomination — his first traceable activity in the current window.
• silent breaksSen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, has issued no releases in 79 days; Sen. Alan Armstrong, R-OK, in 77 days — neither appears in today's release set.

Quiet desks

Senators with no release in two weeks or more.

• Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC79d
• Sen. Alan Armstrong, R-OK77d
• Sen. Roger F. Wicker, R-MS71d
• Sen. Peter Welch, D-VT37d