Delegation for 10.2.26: Empty chambers — Rogue AI — beds for vets — bigger fish — Flock around

Florida lawmakers turn their attention from governing to campaigning ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

Empty chambers   Congress has wrapped up business in Washington ahead of the Midterms. In its Wednesday Session, the Senate dispensed with a handful of final orders of business, with the last major roll call vote confirming Labor Secretary (and Florida lawyer) Keith Sonderling to his Cabinet post. Sens. Ashley Moody and Rick Scott both joined in a majority on that 47-41 vote. But the Senate also punted on other issues in the waning hours before an October recess. Both joined a 57-43 vote to cloture the Ratepayer Protection Act, which fell three votes short of the 60 needed to advance. Moody had co-sponsored the Senate version of that bill. Keith Sonderling starts his new job just before Congress clocks out. Image via AP. The measure, which passed the House 417-3 on Sept. 16, would require states to consider standards aimed at ensuring AI data centers cover the incremental costs of new utility infrastructure needed to serve them. Notably, Rep. Kathy Castor, a Tampa Democrat, had helped lead a bipartisan effort to get that through the lower chamber, but Senate Democrats argued it was too weak because it required states to consider such protections rather than mandate them. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the bill “feeble” and “toothless.” Another bill downed in a party-line vote? No Senate Democrats voted to invoke cloture on a stock trading ban, one all Republicans supported. Moody noted the party breakdowns. “Democrats had the opportunity to join us in restoring some faith in our government by banning members of Congress from trading stocks and protecting families from paying the costs for massive data centers, and they said NO,” the Plant City Republican said. “Instead of working to benefit the American people, Democrats chose to play politics to solicit praise from the most radical element of their base.” But after the Sonderling vote, the Senate approved several ambassadorships by unanimous consent, and Democrats agreed to limit debate so lawmakers from both parties could head home early. That allowed Moody to campaign alongside Vice President JD Vance in Lakeland on Thursday. The House, of course, has been back at home in full campaign mode for weeks. Speaker Mike Johnson canceled weeks of legislative workdays and abruptly adjourned business on Sept. 16, leaving certain work undone, including hearing a privileged impeachment resolution on War Secretary Pete Hegseth. But that, along with other bills that didn’t reach cloture, can still come up again before a new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3. After the Nov. 3 Midterms, both chambers expect to return to Washington on Nov. 9 for a lame-duck Session. Based on current polling, it may be the last time Republicans control both chambers of Congress during President Donald Trump’s term, so there may be a race to send GOP priorities to the Oval Office quickly. If Republicans can maintain control of either or both chambers, the Session could set the tone for the next Congress. Either way, leaders will need to hold leadership discussions for the coming legislative term. For some lawmakers, the upcoming Session will mark their last opportunity to tackle priorities for their districts. Five members of Florida’s congressional delegation have already announced they will retire at the end of this Congress, and a sixth was defeated in a Primary. Voters will decide if any other sitting lawmakers will spend mid-November and December gearing up for a new year or finishing any business left undone.

Stock market invasion?   Scott doesn’t want U.S. stock exchanges used to build up China’s military capacity. The Naples Republican filed two bills this week that would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to identify and stop any defense companies tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from trading on American markets. “Communist China’s military companies want to use U.S. markets and exchanges to fund the CCP’s efforts to attack our way of life using dollars from American investors. We can’t let that happen,” Scott said. “Communist China has chosen to be our enemy, and it’s time for Congress to act by passing these bills to protect Americans from funding an adversary which wishes to destroy us.” Rick Scott wants Chinese military companies to find another source of spending money. The Know Your Sanctioned Securities Act would require the War Department to label any securities identified as Chinese military companies, and it would create accompanying rules for the SEC to remove the modifier if an entity gets delisted. Meanwhile, the Protecting U.S. Investors from Chinese Military Companies Act would require the SEC to suspend trading in Chinese military companies that remain on the list across two consecutive annual revisions. The bill would allow the SEC to notify Congress if a company doesn’t belong on the list. It would also limit the agency to issuing regulations strictly necessary to implement suspensions and notifications and bar it from setting list criteria, expanding trading prohibitions beyond the statute, or regulating unrelated entities and transactions. Financial watchdogs like the American Securities Association (ASA) already endorsed the legislation. “When the Pentagon designates a company as a Chinese military company, that company has no business raising capital from American working families, savers, and retirees,” said Chris Iacovella, ASA President and CEO. “These CCP-controlled firms have traded freely on U.S. exchanges for years despite those designations — that's not a procedural gap; it's a strategic failure that Sen. Scott's bills fix.”

Rogue AI   Both Florida Senators had a seat at the table as a Senate Homeland Security Subcommittee held a hearing entitled “Rogue AI: Securing America against artificial intelligence agents.” Lawmakers examined increasingly capable artificial intelligence agents that can autonomously launch cyberattacks. Senators wrestled with how to guard against those threats without hamstringing U.S. development. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri chaired the hearing and pointed to a string of recent instances in which AI agents hacked corporations and governments. Rick Scott and Josh Hawley examine AI threats that come without a human operator. “It’s time to talk about that, and it’s time to talk about what we’re going to do to hold the companies, the product makers, accountable,” Hawley said. Scott, however, said the greatest risk is letting China outpace the U.S. in AI development. “The Chinese Communist Party wants to destroy our way of life,” Scott said during the hearing, before adding that “we’ve got to continue to be competitive with AI.” Scott’s fellow Florida Republican, Moody, focused her questioning on AI-enabled fraud, risks to children and whether companies should face stronger requirements to share information and report incidents. “AI-generated deepfakes are being used against kids to bully them and in some cases extort them into harming themselves,” Moody said. TO SEE MORE OF THE DELEGATION CLICK HERE