Senior congressional staffers back AI industry regulation, survey shows

The people who actually write the bills on Capitol Hill have a view on artificial intelligence. Most of them want Congress to regulate it.

Nearly three-quarters of senior Hill staffers support congressional regulation of the AI industry, according to a survey reported by Punchbowl News.

A consistent pattern across surveys

A November 2024 CNCT Capitol Pulse survey found that 86% of congressional aides believed the federal government should lead on AI regulation. Support crossed party lines, though not evenly.

Among Republican aides, 77% favored federal regulation. Among Democratic aides, the figure reached 96%.

In that same survey, 23% of GOP staff and 4% of Democratic staff said they preferred letting private industry regulate itself.

The two surveys measure somewhat different groups. The CNCT poll covered congressional aides broadly, while the Punchbowl figure focuses on senior staffers. So comparing the 86% figure to nearly three-quarters is closer to apples and pears than apples and apples.

Who regulates matters as much as whether

A February 2026 survey found that 57% of aides supported a hybrid approach that splits regulatory authority between Washington and the states.

That question of federal versus state power determines whether a company building AI products faces one national standard or a patchwork of different requirements depending on where it operates.

The staffers are also the users

Congressional aides average around 27 years old, and many use AI tools in their day-to-day legislative work.

Republican policy aides in particular are frequent users of AI tools. That is a notable wrinkle, given that Republican staff are also the group more open to industry self-regulation.

Why nothing has passed yet

As of late September 2026, Congress had not passed comprehensive federal AI legislation.

The research points to partisan disagreements on three fronts: federal preemption, safety standards, and the role of industry self-regulation.

What this means for the AI industry

The 57% support for a hybrid federal-state model suggests that a single, clean national framework is far from guaranteed.

Republican aides remain notably more receptive to self-regulation than their Democratic counterparts. The balance of power in Congress could therefore shape how strict any eventual framework turns out to be, and how much room it leaves companies to police themselves.

Aides have favored federal involvement since at least November 2024, and legislation still has not crossed the finish line. What to watch is whether lawmakers can bridge the disagreements on preemption and safety standards.

Disclosure: This article was edited by Diego Almada Lopez. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.