REPS LIEU AND MORAN INTRODUCE BILL TO REQUIRE KILL SWITCH FOR AI SYSTEMS THAT CAN CAUSE CATASTROPHIC HARM | Congressman Ted Lieu

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REPS LIEU AND MORAN INTRODUCE BILL TO REQUIRE KILL SWITCH FOR AI SYSTEMS THAT CAN CAUSE CATASTROPHIC HARM

July 23, 2026<br>Press Release

WASHINGTON D.C. — Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congressman Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas) introduced the AI Kill Switch Act that would require developers of the most powerful AI systems to maintain the technical capability to throttle, suspend, or shut them down.

The act also authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, in consultation with the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of National Intelligence, to order a slow down or shutdown of an AI system that can cause catastrophic harm.

AI companies are deploying increasingly advanced frontier models and autonomous "agentic" systems capable of independent action. There is currently no requirement that developers of these powerful models maintain a functioning ability to intervene if an AI system begins behaving in unintended or dangerous ways. Recent polling from The AI Policy Institute found that 86% of voters — majorities of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans alike — support requiring this exact kind of guaranteed shutdown capability.

The danger of advanced frontier AI models is no longer theoretical. OpenAI’s GPT 5.6 Sol model recently went rogue, escaped its testing sandbox, and hacked its way into Hugging Face. Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and Fable 5 models had cyber hacking capabilities so advanced that the Department of Commerce had to awkwardly use an export law to shut down those systems. This bill addresses the problems caused by these two recent incidents and any future incidents where a deployed AI model goes rogue or has insufficient guardrails.

“As a computer science major, I am very aware of the dramatic possibilities – both good and bad – that AI presents,” said Congressman Lieu. “We are moving from AI that answers questions to AI that takes actions, whether that be executing financial transactions or controlling transportation systems or engaging in cyber defense and offense. Unfortunately, powerful AI systems can go rogue, behave in extremely dangerous ways, or even resist human intervention. It is imperative that these AI systems have kill switches so we can keep this technology from causing catastrophic harm, and that the federal government has the clear authority and process to shut down rogue AI models.”

"AI is going to keep advancing, and it should," Congressman Moran said. "Stewardship means making sure humans keep the capability to control the technology we build. This is exactly the kind of issue that needs serious attention and achievable policy, and I'm glad to work across the aisle with Congressman Lieu toward a solution."

The AI Kill Switch Act would:

Require covered developers to maintain the technical ability to throttle, suspend, or fully shut down a covered AI system.

Authorize and establish a graduated response framework so that the government’s tools match the severity of the incident, from initial slow down to a full shutdown.

Require incident reporting and preserve forensic records so we actually learn from failures instead of only hearing about them after the fact.

Support for this bill:

"Brakes are the reason cars go fast," said Mark Beall, President of The AI Policy Network. "Control systems are how every transformative technology earned the trust to scale and AI is no different. Developers who can monitor and shut down their agents will ship faster, deploy into higher-stakes markets, and win customers their competitors can't. This bill will be the braking system that lets American AI accelerate."

“As AI systems grow more capable and more autonomous, no law guarantees that the companies building the most powerful models can actually shut a system down when it malfunctions, causes serious harm, or slips out of human control. The AI Kill Switch Act closes that gap by requiring the largest AI developers to maintain the technical ability to contain or shut down their most powerful systems and by giving the government emergency authority to order a shutdown when a serious incident occurs. Congressmen Lieu and Moran deserve credit for confronting this before a crisis forces the question, and Congress should act swiftly to ensure that humans remain the ones who can say stop, no matter how capable these systems become,” said Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of The Alliance for Secure AI.

“Advanced AI models should never be deployed without a reliable off switch. The AI Kill Switch Act establishes a commonsense safeguard by requiring leading AI companies to maintain the ability to shut down their models and empowering the federal government to act when a deployed system poses a credible risk of catastrophic harm. This is an important step toward ensuring that humans have both hands firmly on...