Tech CEO hearings. Tougher AI and data center guardrails. Investigations of Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts. The gates are open for Democrats formerly they regain authority of commission gavels arrive January following a historic win of majorities in the two the House and Senate on Tuesday.
“LAWYER UP,” the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee wrote on X in a communication aimed at the Trump administration as fine as “corporate corruption” shortly following networks akin NBC News projected Democratic authority of the House. “Subpoenas,” Senate Finance Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-OR) posted. It’s apparent tech executives volition additionally be caught in Democrats’ crosshairs. “They are going to need to factory new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) posted in reply to a comment that asked, “Live televised trials of Big Tech executives when?”
“They are going to need to factory new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing”
Rep. Greg Casar (D-TX), place of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and an Oversight member, made apparent that AI companies are fine inside his sights. “AI business CEOs have to be called to attest under oath,” he stated in a statement. “The revolt against data centers was among the top issues of the 2026 election, and in a few years we volition appearance rear on it as fair the first tremor of a much bigger AI earthquake upending American politics.” Rep. Frank Pallone, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the clearinghouse for tech guideline issues ranging from digital privacy to kids online safety to AI, pledged to advancement policies that “protect consumers and the environment, prioritize spotless energy, and rein in Big Tech.” Silicon Valley Congressman Ro Khanna stated taxing billionaires have to be among Democrats’ top goals. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has called to “PAUSE AI NOW.”
Democrats have already used their stance in the smaller group to indication what would be at the top of their commission agendas. House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), for example, held a “shadow” hearing before this twelvemonth following the Trump administration’s Justice Department settled its Live Nation-Ticketmaster antitrust trial, which province attorneys broad who continued to litigate went on to win.
At the time, Raskin told reporters that it was crucial to get a caput commencement on administration oversight. “The misconduct permeates the administration so much that we have to commencement construction the document since it’s specified an overwhelming task,” he said. “We volition be using the products of all of these shade hearings to fig out anywhere to go.” More recently, Raskin demanded information from Amazon, Google, Meta, and Oracle concerning nondisclosure agreements for community officials considering data center proposals.
“AI business CEOs have to be called to attest under oath”
Democrats are additionally itching to examine Tesla and SpaceX CEO Musk complete all manner of issues. Musk spent record-breaking amounts trying to choose Republicans this sequence and held an unprecedented function in the second Trump administration as the community visage of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), liable for slashing national jobs and eliminating the country’s gentle diplomacy arm, USAID. Powerful Democratic lawmakers recently told Politico they’re eyeing issues akin Musk’s function in DOGE, his alleged conflicts of interest, and his function in reportedly disrupting Starlink service to Ukraine.
Rep. Sam Liccardo (D-CA), a lawmaker from Silicon Valley who fair won reelection, says during he’s all for probing things akin DOGE, he additionally doesn’t desire his gathering to get misplaced in endless calls for tech CEOs to attest without important legislating to rear it up. “I think what is imperative for Democrats is to arrive to the array alongside solutions, not alongside slogans. Not alongside a lot of performative ranting, but genuine solutions,” Liccardo tells The Verge in an interview.
With complete authority of Congress by a important margin, Democrats may be capable to shove onward law that would have alternatively been difficult to continue under current Republican leadership. They volition motionless apt run into vetoes by President Donald Trump complete things akin additional heavy-handed AI safeguards that the chairman has resisted. TD Cowen’s Washington Research Group wrote in a note Wednesday that it motionless firmly believes Trump “will veto any AI safety invoice passed by Congress that would dilatory the AI example releases cycle.” The collection additionally anticipates that Democrats volition obtain another stab at tech antitrust legislation, which has been additional or small on clasp for years, but suspects those efforts volition either halt abbreviated of a flat ballot or get vetoed.
Liccardo thinks AI safety rules have to be at the top of Democrats’ tech agenda, followed closely by data centers and AI’s effect on jobs. Despite Trump’s aversion to many AI safeguards, he says Congress may be capable to get Trump’s signature if they can muster adequate bipartisan support. “Pushing Trump out of the way requires that we display strength,” Liccardo says. “We saw that in the former with, for example, the Epstein files.” When several Republicans bankrupt distant from him, Liccardo says, Trump realized “that he had to get out of the way of the train since he was not going to halt it.”
Trump told The New York Times on ballot night he’d at smallest aim to activity alongside Democrats, which could signify a possible way for measures alongside a broad alliance of bipartisan support. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), for example, passed overwhelmingly in the Senate in 2024, but was blocked by Republican guidance in the House. While Trump has not endorsed the Kids Online Safety Act, which was cosponsored by his partner Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), it’s conceivable it could continue the House if stated the flat time, and Trump could regard signing it should it continue the two chambers. “Big Tech’s lawless disregard for our children and our communities volition be among my top priorities this Congress,” KOSA cosponsor Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) stated in a statement. “Whether it’s the industry selling kids’ lives for greater profits or its wealthiest leaders trying to buy power from a corrupt Trump Administration, Big Tech’s reign of impunity must arrive to an end. Frankly, this matter has continually been bipartisan, and I’m hopeful that I’ll have powerful partners on the two sides of the aisle as we prosecute a powerful oversight agenda.”
Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) says Democrats should continue bills akin those he’s introduced to make app stores responsible for imposing age requirements and keep kids under 16 off of social media to provision parents rear a awareness of control. “Democrats should provision sound to parents who awareness powerless against social media corporations that treat their children akin liberated labor for the dopamine economy,” he says in a statement.
Data center developers are additionally apt to hit obstacles and have to dilatory their breakneck pace. “For tech investors the big concentration is volition these mid-term elections dilatory the gait of the planned 800 to 1,000 datacenters throughout the US fueling the AI Revolution…the answer in our perspective is a apparent YES,” Yorkville Ives analysts wrote in a note on Wednesday. “There is no way to sugarcoat that Democrats taking authority particularly complete the Senate volition create several important hurdles for AI and tech law in the Beltway complete the next 2 years. While Trump volition apt veto any important draconian AI safety or regulatory laws, this volition power the tech industry (Big Tech CEOs) to the negotiating array to try to arrive up alongside compromises about law in Congress surrounding AI connected legislation.”
“Democrats taking authority particularly complete the Senate volition create several important hurdles for AI and tech legislation”
Center-left tech guideline alliance Chamber of Progress is already alert Democrats not to “confuse an anti-Trump motion alongside an anti-tech mandate,” alongside CEO Adam Kovacevich saying that Democratic administrator candidates who opposed data center bans won at higher rates than supporters. Liccardo says “it’s not a concealed that data centers study concerning as fine as measles, mumps, and rubella, but I don’t think that’s what abruptly drove the midterms.” He hopes to leverage the data center buildout to create developers pay for needed investments in the energy grid.
One business that could get a slightly warmer greeted in Congress may be Anthropic, which notably stood up to the Trump administration whenever the Pentagon demanded it concur to let it use Anthropic’s AI for family bulk surveillance and autonomous weapons. The business is motionless apt to visage many of the identical questions and skepticism concerning its AI safety proposals as another foremost AI companies, but its positioning complete the former multiple months may assistance differentiate it from peers.
Democrats’ latest messaging has promised a Big Tech and AI crackdown. Between 2020 and 2024, the gathering spent concerning $2 myriad to run six governmental ads that referenced keywords relating to the tech industry, according to community guideline collection Reset Tech; between 2025 and 2026, they ran 387, spending additional than $100 myriad to do so. If the results from Tuesday are any indication, the rewards for following through alongside that communication could be high.
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