Mike Johnson Sends House on Recess: List of AI Bills in Progress - Newsweek

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said representatives will likely wrap up their work ahead of recess Wednesday night, despite pending debates and votes on artificial intelligence and articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

Johnson's announcement came shortly after House Democrats stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building and vowed to take more action than their Republican colleagues would if they took control of the House in the midterms.

"Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans promised to bring down grocery prices on Day One. They promised to stop endless wars in the Middle East," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. "But Republicans have done nothing to make life more affordable for the American people."

Over 100 Democrats also signed a letter to Johnson earlier Wednesday, demanding he cancel a planned break for the House so lawmakers could vote on AI regulation legislation.

"While we're seeing this firestorm of concern throughout the country around AI safety, we've got Speaker Johnson fiddling, and at least Nero had the decency to stay in town while Rome burned," Democratic California Representative Sam Liccardo said in a press release. "Speaker Mike Johnson is shutting down Congress for seven weeks. The American people need action, not vacation."

Johnson pushed back against claims that the GOP was not acting on the issue, arguing that President Donald Trump and other senior Republicans were speaking with tech leaders on the matter.

"This is not the time for foolish, knee-jerk reactions," he posted on X Wednesday morning. "We must handle the advancing technology in a wise, balanced manner to harness its potential while ensuring its safety. We can and will do that correctly."

Some votes scheduled for Thursday may now take place Wednesday, before lawmakers are sent home for a weekslong break, Politico reported.

Johnson's office deferred to his comments to reporters earlier Wednesday when reached by Newsweek, including his reasoning for ending the session early.

"The house has done its work," the Speaker said. "You've seen the statistics we've been talking about for the last few days. This House has been the second most productive in terms of legislation in the history of the institution since 1789. We passed over 900 pieces of legislation. Right now, about 700 of those bills are sitting in the Senate awaiting action."

Reacting to the early recess, South Carolina Republican Representative Ralph Norman took to X, saying the decision was unacceptable.

"The House has now canceled at least 63 scheduled voting days this Congress, including nine days this month alone, and now we're leaving Washington until after the election," he said. "The Founders did not envision taking this much time off and still getting paid. If Members of Congress want to go home and campaign instead of doing the job taxpayers sent us here to do, then their campaigns ought to be paying them, NOT the American taxpayer. We still have work to do."

The Brennan Center for Justice currently lists a wide range of AI-related bills pending before the House, including some focused on government use and tackling deepfakes.

So far this Congress, the tracker shows over 65 bills have been introduced that either directly or indirectly seek to address concerns around AI. Only a couple have passed into law.

The Senate also has a number of AI-related bills pending.

Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said Tuesday he planned to introduce a bill that would require AI developers to have a "kill switch" to turn off any dangerous software. The idea didn't appear to make it past the first discussion Wednesday, after Kennedy said he didn't want to see another committee created to examine the idea following objections from Senator Rand Paul.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Kennedy said he was disappointed at how little the Senate had achieved since passing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act in July 2025.

"I'm embarrassed about it," Kennedy told Fox News. "The public is upset about a lot of things. They're upset about the cost of living, they would like answers about what's going on with Iran, they're upset about artificial intelligence."

Lawmakers are coming under increasing pressure to act on AI concerns, with the U.S. being one of the leading countries in the industry while having little federal regulation.

A recent Associated Press/NORC survey found 47 percent of those questioned were more concerned than excited about AI's impact on how they get their information in the future, while 53 percent said they were concerned about the tech's environmental impacts.

Another poll, released by Politico September 16, showed 63 percent of Americans felt AI could one day destroy humanity, with 48 percent wanting some kind of pause on the development of more advanced AI models.

A New York Times/Siena poll also showed the anxiety around the technology was becoming political, with voters feeling Republicans were more likely to take concerns seriously compared to their Democratic Party colleagues.

All three polls come amid the increased scrutiny around AI following high-profile warnings from employees and industry leaders about the pace of the technology's development.

Johnson said Wednesday that there would be a "deliberate discussion" about what AI companies can do to maintain safety, as well as what role, if any, the government will take when leaders meet with Trump sometime later this week or early next week.

Among the matters lawmakers spent time on Wednesday before their recess was a bill to decide on the nation's official fossil dinosaur.

The bill, sponsored by Indiana Republican Erin Houchin, declared the Tyrannosaurus Rex as the country's national fossil dino, who it also named the American mastodon as the national fossil mammal.

Houchin said he hoped the measure would inspire young people to put down their phones, go outside, and dig. The bill was approved unanimously.

Lawmakers also considered bills covering creating the National Fraud Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice, legislation to raise the federal debt limits for small business Chapter 11 and Chapter 13 consumer bankruptcies, and former Senator Lindsey Graham's Russia sanctions bill.

Despite these pressures, the House is set to break for recess starting Wednesday night.

Lawmakers are not expected to return until after the midterms in early November.

Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Gabe Whisnant and Sam Wilson.