{"slug": "bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal", "title": "Bipartisan House duo welcomes industry support for AI safety proposal", "summary": "OpenAI publicly backed key provisions of the FRONTIER Act (H.R. 9925) on September 15, 2026, endorsing the bill's requirement that licensed independent verification organizations evaluate AI safety. Introduced July 23, 2026 by Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), the bill would create a tiered federal oversight framework for AI developers exceeding $50 million in revenue and $1 billion in AI development spending over 36 months, with civil penalties up to $10 million per day and a new Under Secretary for AI Security at the Department of Commerce. As of mid-September 2026, the bill has not advanced to hearings or markups.", "body_md": "Photo: Nicolas Foster / Pexels\n\n# Bipartisan House duo welcomes industry support for AI safety proposal\n\nThe FRONTIER Act would create a tiered federal oversight framework for advanced AI models, with penalties reaching $10 million per day for noncompliance\n\nA pair of lawmakers from opposite sides of the aisle just got a notable endorsement for their attempt to bring federal order to the AI Wild West. OpenAI publicly backed key provisions of the FRONTIER Act on September 15, 2026, specifically the bill’s requirement that independent verification organizations evaluate AI safety.\n\nThe FRONTIER Act, formally designated H.R. 9925, was introduced on July 23, 2026 by Rep. Jay Obernolte, a California Republican, and Rep. Lori Trahan, a Massachusetts Democrat. Its core ambition: replace the growing patchwork of state-level AI regulations with a single, coherent federal standard for the most powerful AI models being developed today.\n\n## What the bill actually does\n\nThe legislation creates a tiered regulatory framework that focuses specifically on larger AI developers. To fall under the bill’s jurisdiction, a company needs to exceed $50 million in revenue and have spent more than $1 billion on AI development over a 36-month period.\n\nThe bill also introduces a precise technical definition for what counts as a “frontier model.” Any AI system requiring more than 10^26 compute operations for training qualifies.\n\nDevelopers who meet these criteria would face a suite of new obligations. They’d need to publish safety frameworks, conduct annual audits, and report critical incidents to federal authorities. The very largest developers face an additional layer: retaining licensed independent verification organizations, the IVOs that OpenAI specifically endorsed, for ongoing external assessment of their systems.\n\n### AI, tech, and the markets they move—in one daily briefing.\n\nDaily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.\n\nThe enforcement mechanism has real teeth. Civil penalties for violations can reach up to $10 million per day.\n\nOverseeing all of this would be a newly created position: an Under Secretary for AI Security housed within the Department of Commerce. This role would manage compliance monitoring, safety incident tracking, and coordination across federal agencies. In cases of imminent catastrophic risk, the Commerce Secretary would gain emergency authority to suspend or restrict AI deployments entirely.\n\n## Why OpenAI’s support matters\n\nThe bill also reflects meaningful industry feedback in its final form. The legislation provides certain exemptions for state authority over deployment-specific matters and child safety concerns, a compromise that acknowledges states like California and New York have already been building their own regulatory frameworks.\n\n## The broader regulatory landscape\n\nAs of mid-September 2026, the bill has not advanced to hearings or markups.\n\n**Disclosure:** This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our\n\n[Editorial Policy](https://cryptobriefing.com/editorial-policy/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal", "canonical_source": "https://cryptobriefing.com/frontier-act-ai-safety-bipartisan-proposal/", "published_at": "2026-09-15 16:15:04+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-09-15 16:21:42.402036+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["ai-policy", "ai-safety", "artificial-intelligence"], "entities": ["OpenAI", "FRONTIER Act", "Jay Obernolte", "Lori Trahan", "Department of Commerce", "Under Secretary for AI Security", "H.R. 9925", "U.S. House of Representatives"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/bipartisan-house-duo-welcomes-industry-support-for-ai-safety-proposal.jsonld"}}