AI Safety Bills Gain Momentum in Congress
The Artificial Intelligence Risk Management and Security Act of 2026 (SB 5576) was introduced in the Senate at the end of September by three Democrats. Among them was VA Senator Mark Warner, whose influence could be key to passage if Democrats take control in January and he is promoted from vice chair to chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
Two additional AI safety bills were introduced from Senators on both sides of the aisle, indicating the growing consensus that some regulatory action on AI is inevitable. Washington’s Senator Maria Cantwell introduced a framework for regulating frontier AI systems calling for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to be charged with developing standards to protect against catastrophic harms from artificial intelligence models. Missouri’s Senator Josh Hawley introduced a bill that would put the Department of Energy in charge of stress-testing the most powerful AI systems before they reach the public. It would also impose severe financial penalties on companies that release new frontier models without going through prior review.
Why It Matters:
The bill would create an AI Safety Board within the Department of Commerce charged with operationalizing the bill’s requirements. That Board would be charged with developing a process to perform technical evaluations of the capabilities of AI tools that constitute threats to U.S. national and economic security; devising processes and metrics to evaluate the risks posed by frontier AI models; developing standard formats for publishing technical details of frontier AI models; and establishing technical standards and reference architectures for secure testing environments.
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Community Banking Trade Group Sues OCC over Crypto Bank Charters
The Independent Community Bankers of America (ICBA) announced that it is suing the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) over new regulations, finalized March 2, 2026, that enabled issuing crypto firm charters without requiring them to be subject to equivalent regulatory frameworks and safeguards (e.g., community reinvestment, supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance) as community banks.
“The OCC’s decision to allow companies to obtain national trust bank charters to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authority Congress granted the agency,” ICBA President and CEO Rebeca Romero Rainey said in the release. “Congress did not create the national trust charter as a side door into the banking system for crypto firms seeking the credibility of a federal bank charter without the Community Reinvestment Act obligations, consolidated supervision, capital and liquidity standards, and FDIC insurance that apply to insured depository institutions.”
Why It Matters:
If the ICBA prevails, firms that obtained the special purpose charters would either have to operate under the traditional OCC national bank charter framework or revert to state regulation as state-chartered trust companies or under state MTL licenses.
Italy Becomes Among First EU Members to Establish Complete National AI Regulatory Architecture Operationalizing the EU AI Act
The EU AI Act (effective August 2024) requires Member States to “transpose” (operationalize) its requirements into national legal frameworks by laying down general principles, sector-specific rules, governance models, and public investment strategies for AI systems. Italy is among the first to operationalize its framework. The primary instrument is Legislative Decree No. 160 dated September 9, 2026 (Decree 160/2026), in force since September 30, 2026.
Why It Matters:
Italy’s Decree 160/2026 introduces a detailed framework governing the use of AI systems by law enforcement authorities, establishes criminal liability for the omission of mandatory safety safeguards and human oversight measures for high-risk AI systems, as well as for the unlawful alteration of such systems, provides rules around civil liability for AI-related harm, and more.
