Warner Weekly Wrap-Up: R-AI-sing the Bar

Happy Friday from the Warner press office! Sen. Warner was once again firing on all cylinders this week, introducing an exciting new slate of legislation to help us prepare for the rapid changes brought by AI, fighting back against Trump’s open corruption, and speaking up to lower your prices amid a new set of tariffs.

There’s a lot to get into, so without further ado…

Well, it seems like you can’t make it through a single day without hearing about artificial intelligence. From its potentially devastating impacts on our job market… to the rapid proliferation of data centers and their associated utility bill increases… to alarming stories of chatbots coaxing minors into self-harm… Virginians have good reason to be skeptical of this nascent technology.

At the same time, AI holds tremendous promise for advancing scientific discovery, eliminating boring friction in all of our lives, and creating new high-tech jobs… and it’s important that we protect room for responsible innovation and ensure America can remain a leader in this space.

For years, Sen. Warner has been weighing both of these priorities and learning as much as he possibly can about artificial intelligence to shape thoughtful policy that meets this critical moment.

While he’s already introduced scores of legislation to protect jobs and get ahead of some of the biggest risks… this week he upped the ante and unveiled a bold new framework with 6 new pieces of legislation that would establish some commonsense regulation while ensuring the United States is ready to lead the world in responsible AI development.

That framework includes:

• The Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, which would require large AI data centers to publicly disclose key information about their energy and water consumption, emissions, backup generation, and other operational impacts – providing communities, local policymakers, and consumers with the information they need to understand and plan for these facilities.

• The Artificial Intelligence Access, Gatekeeper Exchange, and Nondiscriminatory Transfer Act, or AI AGENT Act, legislation which would establish rights and responsibilities for consumer-facing AI agents.

• The Safeguarding Against Fabricated Exploitation Through Artificial Intelligence (SAFE AI) Act which would establish a National Institute of Standards and Technology-led testing and verification process for AI models, prohibit federal agencies from procuring AI systems capable of generating child sexual abuse material (CSAM) or non-consensual intimate images (NCII), prohibit software designed to circumvent AI safety controls, and create a private right of action for survivors whose likeness is used to generate AI-produced CSAM.

• The National Workforce Transition Fund, a proposal to ensure workers – not just big corporations – benefit from the AI revolution. The legislation would dedicate revenue generated by limiting bonus depreciation for AI data center infrastructure to a National Workforce Transition Fund supporting worker retraining, individual workforce training accounts, employer retention and redeployment grants, tuition assistance for high-demand fields, workforce data modernization, and innovative pilot programs to help workers navigate technological disruption.

• The Promoting High-skilled Doctoral (PHD) Talent Act, legislation to expand America’s pipeline of homegrown STEM talent by helping universities create accelerated pathways from undergraduate education to Ph.D. programs in critical technology fields, expanding the domestic pipeline of researchers and innovators in AI, cybersecurity, semiconductors, quantum computing, and other technologies essential to America’s future.

• The Secure AI Development Act, which would establish a mandatory secure testing environment for the nation’s most advanced AI models before deployment, modernize the federal government’s processes for identifying and disclosing AI-related cybersecurity vulnerabilities, improve information sharing between government and AI developers, and create a voluntary AI safety incident reporting system modeled after the aviation industry’s safety reporting framework.

Curious to dive deeper on all of these laws? Sen. Warner released a booklet with tons more information on all of these bills. You can read that here.

But wait… there’s more! You can also watch his full YouTube explainer here… OR his floor speech unveiling this new push.

This doesn’t represent the end of Sen. Warner’s work on AI… over the next several weeks and months, he’s going to keep soliciting feedback, introducing new proposals, and fighting to pass real progress in this arena.

Instead of meeting this moment of rapid change with doom or refusing to legislate at all… Sen. Warner is meeting the moment with thoughtful, bold action.

And now… from the President that brought you $2.2 billion in grifts during his time in office…. ANOTHER ENORMOUS SCAM! Since it might be hard to keep track of the endless parade of self-enrichment emanating from this administration… we wanted to make sure you heard about one of President Trump’s newest scams.

First of all, let’s zoom out for a second. More than any president before him, Trump has ruled by social media post… using his preferred Truth Social platform to announce seismic policy changes… many of which move the markets. One of his posts announcing a tariff pause sent the S&P shooting up by 9.5 percent. A post delaying planned attacks on Iran drove oil prices down by about 15 percent.

In our markets, seconds can mean millions. Having even a little bit of a heads up can dramatically change how much you yield.

Ever the scammer, Trump is preparing to capitalize on that phenomenon. Reporting broke last week that Truth Social has been shopping around a brand new plan that provides a high-speed feed of President Trump’s posts… in exchange for the low, low price of $100,000 per month.

That means those willing to pay the ransom could make big windfalls trading on new information… and everyone else gets left out in the cold. It’s a total scam… and in any normal world, federal regulators would probably step in to prevent this enormous graft.

But this isn’t a normal world.

So this week, Sen. Warner pressed directly on leaders from across the financial services industry urging them not to participate in this enormous scam. He wrote,

“These incidents demonstrate the risk of allowing firms that pay for Truth API to receive the president’s market-moving statements faster than ordinary users. It would create a two-tiered system for access to government information and threaten the credibility of U.S. capital markets. This latest venture also adds to a broader pattern of self-dealing by President Trump. By using Truth Social as a primary channel for announcing market-moving government decisions, the president has made rapid access to his account uniquely valuable to financial firms. TMTG is now seeking to profit from that value by charging firms for faster delivery of those announcements, even as President Trump retains a substantial financial interest in the company.”

Sen. Warner has been relentless in trying to curb Trump’s rampant corruption… so don’t expect this to be the last action you see on this topic. Stay tuned for more updates next week…

As Trump continues waging his war of choice and announces new tariffs on OVER 60 U.S. trading partners from Canada to the U.K., Sen. Warner is sounding the alarm on the impacts this administration’s disastrous policies are having on Virginians.

New data has found that Virginia families have had to spend more than $2,900 extra on everyday expenses since President Trump took office last year. These additional costs include everything from housing to energy and groceries to health care.

Specifically, Virginia families have spent more than $2 billion extra on gas since the start of President Trump’s war in Iran! That averages to an extra $605 per household! But those aren’t the only energy expenses that have shot up… Virginians have paid $170 more for electricity in 2025 under President Trump than they did in 2024. In just the first 6 months of 2026, they’re expected to spend an additional $181 for electricity than they did in the first half of 2024. These increased energy costs are all thanks to the President’s senseless and drawn-out conflict.

These extra dollars that Virginians have had to cough up to cover their energy bills are not the only expenses stretching them thin. They have had to spend $637 more on housing, including rent and mortgage payments. (Let’s not forget that earlier this month President Trump refused to sign the ROAD to Housing Act – landmark legislation that included over 40 bipartisan provisions to address the country’s housing crisis – into law. This is a bill that passed the House and Senate with veto-proof margins and only became law because the ten-day clock that started once it reached the president’s desk expired. And WHY did President Trump never sign this bill into law?? Because he wanted Congress to pass theSAVE America Act first… you know, the aggressive voter suppression bill that even many Republicans don’t support.)

And across Virginia and the country, families are having to empty their wallets for groceries. In 2025 under President Trump, Americans paid an average of $310 more for groceries than they did in 2024. Grocery prices are more than 4% higherthan when President Trump took office. The average price of staples like ground beef and coffee are hitting Americans particularly hard, as beef has risen to a record high of more than $7 per pound and coffee process have spiked to nearly $10 per pound.

But that’s still not all! Following President Trump and congressional Republicans’ refusal to extend enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits, average ACA premiums across the country have increased by more than 50% in 2026 compared to last year. Average deductibles also surged to record highs, rising bymore than $1,000.

All of these costs add up and quick! Virginians work hard for their money, and because of this administration’s reckless policies, they’re watching it leave their bank accounts quicker than ever before.

Earlier today, Sens. Warner and Kaine said this about the increased costs:

“This new data confirms what we’ve been hearing from families across Virginia for months. President Trump promised the American people lower costs, but instead, his reckless war of choice in Iran and his chaotic economic policies have driven up the price of filling up your car, buying groceries, keeping the lights on, and putting a roof over your head. Virginians deserve leaders focused on lowering costs – not policies that make life more expensive. We’ll keep fighting to reverse these harmful policies, end this unnecessary war, and put more money back in Virginians’ pockets.”

PUMPING UP PETERSBURG: Sen. Warner celebrated $16 million in federal funding for the Virginia Advanced Pharma Manufacturing (APM) and R&D Cluster in the Richmond-Petersburg region.

CYBERCHASE: Sen. Warner reintroduced the Enhancing K-12 Cybersecurity Act,bipartisan legislation to help schools defend against ransomware, data breaches, and other cyberattacks that can expose students’ information, disrupt classroom learning, and strain already limited school resources.

CLARITY (REMIX): Sen. Warner joined several colleagues in releasing a statement on the latest version of the CLARITY Act.

COMMITTEES CUTTING COSTS: Sen. Warner celebrated that several of his cost-cutting and health-promoting bills cleared key committees.

PROTECTING KIDS: Sen. Warner joined bipartisan colleagues to discussSammy’s Law, legislation that would empower parents to protect their children on social media platforms by providing them the right to know if their children are engaging in dangerous or risky interactions.

WORKING TO OUR ADVANTAGE: Sen. Warner reintroduced the Medicare Advantage Supplemental Benefits Transparency Act, legislation to require Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to publicly report the supplemental benefits they offer and the extent to which beneficiaries use them.

The Senate will be in session next week and Sen. Warner will vote on legislation and nominations.

###