Reps. Lawler, Gottheimer Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Stop Rogue AI Agents and Keep People In Control

Washington, D.C. – 9/15/26… Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17)  and Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05) introduced the bipartisan Stop Rogue AI Act to ensure businesses and federal agencies can see rogue and dangerous AI agents operating inside their own networks and stop them before they cause real damage. The Stop Rogue AI Act would direct the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), to develop national standards, guidelines, and best practices for discovering, verifying, and controlling AI agents. “AI agents are becoming more capable and more deeply integrated into our government and economy. We need to make sure we know what these systems are, what they can access, and who is responsible for them. We can harness the benefits of AI while making sure these systems don’t operate in the shadows of the networks they have access to,” said Congressman Mike Lawler. “Right now, AI agents are running loose in our networks, and nobody can see them or verify who built them, making it increasingly hard to stop them. That’s a five-alarm security risk. We’ve already seen AI systems hack organizations on autopilot, with no person at the wheel. My bipartisan bill with Congressman Lawler puts humans back in the driver’s seat so we can find agents and know exactly who’s behind them so that organizations can effectively protect their systems,” said Congressman Gottheimer. Under the bill, those standards will provide guidance to organizations on how to: Find and track every AI agent operating on their systems, in a continuous, easily readable inventory; Verify who built and operates each agent, using verifiable identity and provenance, not just a vendor’s word; Monitor agents in real time, including detecting prompt injection, data theft, and agents behaving outside their approved limits; and Allow, deny, or revoke an agent’s access, actions, and interactions at any time, so people have the final say over what it can access or do. The bill also requires federal contractors and agencies to build these safeguards into how they buy and deploy AI agents, and directs NIST and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to fold the standards into existing federal cybersecurity guidance. Full text of the bill can be found HERE. Congressman Lawler is one of the most bipartisan members of Congress and represents New York's 17th Congressional District, which is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties. He was rated the most effective freshman lawmaker in the 118th Congress, 8th overall, surpassing dozens of committee chairs. ###