Sounding Alarms About Ai
Floor Speech
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to sound the alarm again about the rapidly advancing capabilities of artificial intelligence systems.
I will say at the outset that while in a sense this is alarming, it is also incredibly exciting. The level of innovation and the expansion capabilities that we are seeing hold the promise of making life better in countless ways for people across the country and around the world.
Yet, at the same time, the pace at which these capabilities are growing has unpredictable risks, as well. We are seeing more and more people who work at or have worked at the leading AI companies who are starting to sound this alarm, as well.
Today, we got a letter from employees of OpenAI, former employees and other researchers. This is according to WIRED reporting. A group of current and former OpenAI employees have issued a public letter warning that the company and its rivals are building artificial intelligence with undue risk, without sufficient oversight, and while muzzling employees who might witness irresponsible activities.
These risks, the letter says, range from the further entrenchment of existing inequalities to manipulation and misinformation and to the loss of control of autonomous AI systems.
As long as there is no effective government oversight of these corporations, the letter says, current and former employees are among the few people who can hold them accountable.
What the authors of this letter are calling for is protection for whistleblowers at the companies who bring to light information about what might be going on there that could be of public concern.
Now, there might, perhaps, be some role for us here when it comes to the question of protecting whistleblowers, but I think there are a couple of other actionable steps that we can take to try to give a greater level of attention and scrutiny to a topic that truly merits it.
I will also say that I am quite skeptical of efforts that we see in several States now to try to regulate this innovation in a way that just stops it in its tracks. I think that the measures that I have seen are rather crude in their formulation and probably wouldn't work. If they did work, they would deprive us of innumerable potential benefits.
What we can do is try to find ways of promoting much greater transparency as far as what is going on at these leading companies so that we all can become more aware of the potential for new capabilities to emerge or for what those capabilities are when they do emerge in the lab.
I think it is worth exploring what sort of reporting and dialogue avenues we might be able to put in place, as well as using our ability to provide transparency and encourage public debate here through, for example, holding hearings on what is going on at some of these leading companies or on questions such as whether AGI, known as artificial general intelligence, is something that might be just around the corner and what the implications of that will be.
I think that given the profound ways in which this technology is already changing the world, and is very likely to do so at a whole other level in the not too distant future, we need to have as many voices as possible participating in these very urgent questions as to how we ensure that this technology continues to benefit humanity and how we can collectively control the risks in a way that is consistent with our values.
The final thing that I think we could do right now to really have a positive impact is to promote basic research or cutting-edge research when it comes to AI safety and alignment issues.
Today, one of the employees who left OpenAI made a statement saying: ``These systems are not ordinary software. They are artificial neural nets that learn from massive amounts of data. There is a rapidly growing scientific literature on interpretability, alignment, and control, but these fields are still in their infancy.''
There is a growing scientific literature on these fields of interpretability, alignment, and control, but they are still in infancy. What we need to do is try to propel that field into full maturity as quickly as possible because the pace of innovation is truly breathtaking right now as models are being scaled up and new capabilities are emerging. We need to do everything we can to encourage research that can be helpful in mitigating the risks as those capabilities continue to grow.
That is something we can do here. I have introduced a bill to do just that. It would provide grants for AI safety research as well as some reporting back from those who receive the grants.
A fundamental function of government is to catalyze research in areas where there might not be a commercial incentive. That is, perhaps, the most important thing that we could do now to try to prepare us for the future ahead and to ensure that we maximize the benefits while minimizing the risks. Funding California's High-Speed Rail Project
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I stand in strong support of the House Transportation Committee's investigation into California's so-called high-speed rail project.
This project has truly been a disappointment of historic proportions. It has now tripled in cost to $128 billion with little more to show for it after 15 years than one bridge to nowhere that was recently unveiled.
The House Transportation Committee, in addition to its Senate counterpart, is demanding documents on the Biden administration's decision to allocate substantial Federal taxpayer dollars to this highly questionable endeavor when there is no reasonable path forward for successful completion.
In fact, a New York Times expose found the train is not even on track to be completed this century. A lead operator several years ago abandoned the project to build in North Africa where it was ``less politically dysfunctional'' than California. That operator, by the way, brought a high-speed train online in Morocco in 2018.
The letter from Chairman Graves and Senator Cruz goes into some detail about the problems that have beleaguered the California High- Speed Rail Authority, CHSRA. It says: ``Despite California's reputation as a high-tax State, the high-speed rail project far exceeds the State's ability to finance the project, and it is now seeking Federal subsidies. In March 2023, CHSRA Peer Review Group, whose job is to evaluate CHSRA's funding plans, sounded the alarm. It reported an astounding `unfunded gap of $92.6 billion to $103.1 billion between estimated costs and known State and Federal funding' for the full San Francisco-to-San Diego system.''
The letter is requesting documents from the Department of Transportation concerning its decision to award $3 billion more to this project and to keep it on life support, which is a concern to California taxpayers not only because these Federal funds are partially our taxes but also because it is continuing to keep the project going so that more and more of our State tax dollars will have to go to it, as well.
Among the requests that are being made of the Department of Transportation is information concerning the Department's ``evaluation of the issues facing the CHRSA, including but not limited to the level of risk associated with the unbid, technically challenging elements of the project, including tunnels and viaduct; the low ridership projected for the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment; the remaining gap in funds needed for completion of the Merced-to-Bakersfield segment, even after the recent awards of more than $3 billion; the lack of an independent review of the economic and financial justification for the project as noted by the peer review group; and the large gap in funds needed for completion of at least the phase I segment from San Francisco to Los Angeles; and DOT's plans to address the issues raised by the CHSRA IG and peer review group prior to obligating funds to CHSRA.''
Madam Speaker, I have been calling for this project to end for years. It is not even clear that if and when it is ever built, it will be anything close to state-of-the-art technology.
For Californians to have to continue to pay billions and billions of dollars more for this project when our roads continue to deteriorate and to be among the worst in the country despite us paying the highest taxes when it comes to gas is absolutely unacceptable. I am hoping that this investigation, which I will look forward to being part of as a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, will play a role in finally bringing the project to an end. Concerns About President Biden
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I rise today to express grave concern over the Biden administration's decision to withhold information that is of very much legitimate public interest and concern.
Specifically, that is the audio recordings of President Biden's interviews with Special Counsel Robert Hur, which were subpoenaed but have not been turned over, and over which the President has now made an assertion of executive privilege.
I have discussed before the many legal problems--indeed, absurdities--of his assertion of executive privilege. I want today to make perhaps a more important point: That is that the administration is going out of its way to prevent the public from getting information that the public very much wants and needs.
During today's Judiciary Committee hearing with Attorney General Merrick Garland, I asked him about Robert Hur and his report. I asked, first of all, whether he regrets picking Robert Hur to be special counsel, and the Attorney General said no.
I asked him about his statement when he appointed Robert Hur, about his long and distinguished career as a prosecutor, if he stood by that, and the Attorney General stood by that.
Moreover, he did not dispute any of the substance of Special Counsel Hur's report. For example, I asked him about Special Counsel Hur's finding that there was evidence the President willfully retained classified documents, and Attorney General Garland did not dispute that finding.
Indeed, when Special Counsel Hur himself testified before our committee a few months ago, I asked Special Counsel Hur if a reasonable juror could have voted to convict President Biden. Special Counsel Hur said yes. That is that there was sufficient evidence to sustain a conviction of President Biden for committing a felony.
Of course, President Biden has not been charged. The special counsel did not recommend charges. One of the reasons that he gave for not doing so was the President's ``diminished faculties and faulty memory,'' at other points referred to as ``poor memory'' or that his memory had ``significant limitations.''
Special Counsel Hur concluded that these factors would make it more difficult to obtain a unanimous jury verdict. I will say again the language from the report: ``diminished faculties and faulty memory.''
These were the conclusions that Mr. Hur reached based upon his interviews with the President. Again, Merrick Garland, Attorney General Garland, who is withholding these recordings, has not disputed any of the special counsel's findings.
Merrick Garland and now President Biden himself are withholding the evidence that Special Counsel Hur used to conclude that the President has diminished faculties and a faulty memory. There is nothing the President or the Attorney General could say to dispute that.
It is the inescapable conclusion of the fact that Attorney General Garland continues to stand by the Hur report and not dispute it.
That is a big problem because I am not myself offering any opinions here on the faculties or cognitive abilities of the President. I am simply quoting the findings of Special Counsel Hur. The public is very much concerned about these issues when it comes to the competency of the Commander in Chief. I don't think anyone would doubt that there is a legitimate public interest in whether the Commander in Chief does have diminished faculties and a faulty memory.
Again, the conclusion is inescapable, that we now have the administration withholding this evidence that is of great concern to the public, and the basis on which they are doing so is almost trivial. The basis on which they are doing so is that if they turn over these recordings, then somehow that will deter future witnesses from cooperating in future investigations because they don't want their words to become public.
Let's take that at face value. Let's assume that it is true, that there would be a deterrent effect or a chilling effect. The problem is that the Justice Department has already released transcripts of the recordings, so if we were to weigh the interests here, there is the undeniable public interest in whether the President has diminished faculties and a faulty memory, as Special Counsel Hur reported. That is the interest on one side.
The interest on the other side is whatever marginal added deterrence there might be from releasing a recording over and above a transcript with the exact words from that recording. One would have to conclude that that additional deterrence effect, to the extent that there is any, is quite small, quite marginal, negligible compared to the overriding public interest in the matter at hand.
Therefore, there is simply no justification for the Justice Department to continue to stonewall or the White House to claim executive privilege. Indeed, it is even more disturbing in light of the fact that the White House tried to alter the Hur report itself. Special Counsel Hur testified to our committee that the White House did request to make edits to the report.
I am, again, calling on the White House and Attorney General Garland to release these recordings of which the public has a legitimate interest in hearing so that they can draw whatever conclusions they might for themselves. Appropriations Funds for Veterans
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, today we began work on passing the fiscal year 2025 Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill to maintain our commitment to our Nation's veterans and bolster our national security.
The bill provides a total of $378.6 billion in overall funding. This includes $337.4 billion for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is $75.5 million more than President Biden's request. It includes $112.6 billion for medical care.
This is tremendously important to me and so many folks in my district. One of the things that we are most proud of in my district office is helping veterans get the care and the benefits that they deserve, and this bill will go a long way toward delivering on what we owe our veterans. Indeed, the bill takes away experimental programs and makes sure that the funding that is in the bill is there to fully support our veterans.
This bill is deserving of bipartisan support, and I will continue to support veterans and support the funding for veterans that they are entitled to. I am very glad to see that it is coming up for consideration and is on its way to passage and, hopefully, being signed into law very soon. Congratulating Sarah Koligian on Her Retirement
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I would like to take a moment to recognize Folsom Cordova Unified School District Superintendent, Dr. Sarah Koligian, who is retiring after 37 years in public education, the past 7 of which she spent serving Folsom Cordova schools.
Dr. Koligian was born and raised in California's San Joaquin Valley and attended Cal State University, Fresno where she earned her doctorate in education.
She began teaching in Fresno, where she was a resource teacher at Madison Elementary. She held various administrative positions and served as a superintendent for other school districts before joining Folsom Cordova in 2017.
In her role as superintendent for the Folsom Cordova Unified School District, Dr. Koligian supported over 20,000 students and almost 3,000 employees across 36 schools. Under her supervision, Folsom Cordova continues to be considered one of the top performing school districts in the region, with award-winning schools and programs.
During her tenure, she faced unprecedented challenges, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite those obstacles, she received the Association of California School Administrators Superintendent of the Year award in 2021, which is quite the distinction.
Throughout her career, she also achieved many long-term goals for the district, including overseeing the opening of two new schools and expanding school resources by implementing transitional kindergarten, community schools, and growing career technical education programs.
Dr. Koligian is known by others for her expertise, enthusiasm, and devotion to her work. I applaud Dr. Koligian for her unwavering dedication to providing educational opportunity, promoting student success, and leading the school district through significant growth and achievement.
Therefore, on behalf of the United States House of Representatives, I am honored to recognize Dr. Koligian for her leadership and nearly four decades of service to public education. I join the students, teachers, and parents of the Folsom Cordova Unified School District in wishing her the very best in her retirement. Detective Jason Westgate Named to Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, it is my distinct honor to name Detective Jason Westgate of the Rocklin Police Department to the Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll.
With an exemplary career spanning over 29 years in law enforcement, Detective Westgate has demonstrated unparalleled commitment to justice, community safety, and the highest standards of law enforcement.
After joining the Rocklin Police Department, Jason quickly distinguished himself as a formidable force against narcotics and crime, earning positions such as canine handler, narcotics detective, SWAT officer, corporal, and eventually leading to his crucial role in the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Team, known as TRIDENT. His tenure in TRIDENT has been marked by significant achievements that reflect his dedication, strategic intellect, and leadership.
From 2016 onward, Detective Westgate and his drug-trained canine, Maddie, have worked together to significantly disrupt drug trafficking operations, leading to the recovery of vast quantities of illegal substances and illicit money which might have otherwise devastated many lives and communities.
In addition to his field work, Jason's contributions to training programs for new officers and his involvement in community education on drug abuse prevention highlight his holistic approach to law enforcement.
He embodies the spirit of community policing by building strong relations with citizens and educating the younger generation, thereby nurturing a safer environment.
Throughout his distinguished career, Detective Westgate has earned numerous honors, reflecting his exceptional skills, reliability, and esteemed reputation among his peers, supervisors, and the community. These accolades include being named the TRIDENT Detective of the Year twice and a Chief's Certificate of Commendation, as well as recent recognitions from the Sacramento FBI and various local law enforcement agencies.
However, the most distinguished of his numerous recognitions is the International Narcotics Interdiction Association 2023 Officer of the Year award. This award serves as evidence of his exceptional impact and contributions to narcotics interdiction, not just on a national scale, but internationally.
His unwavering dedication and outstanding contributions to law enforcement deserve this high recognition, not only as a testament to his personal achievements, but as a beacon of exemplary service that inspires officers across the Nation. Sheriff Mike Fisher Named to Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, I would like to offer congratulations to Sheriff Mike Fisher of the Sierra County Sheriff's Department for being named to the Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll. Sheriff Fisher has now been named to the honor roll twice in as many years.
As a sheriff in a small rural community, Sheriff Fisher wears many different hats. He runs the office, deals with budgets, handles recruitment and hiring, and is the head of the Office of Emergency Services.
At a time when many law enforcement agencies are struggling with hiring and retaining good, qualified candidates, the Sierra County Sheriff's Office has expanded and hired new, enthusiastic deputies who have become solid members of the community.
Although Sheriff Fisher deals with the same administrative responsibilities as in bigger counties, he also remains available to everyone in the community. He personally responds to questions and concerns of his constituents. He is approachable and responsive and cares deeply about all members of the community.
Public safety is Sheriff Fisher's primary goal. He has been instrumental in educating the community to prepare for wildfires. As director of emergency services, he has implemented several notification alternatives to alert the residents regarding emergencies and how to evacuate. He has also been a fierce advocate for Sierra County to retain landline phone service since cellular service in the area is not reliable.
In addition to these challenges, Sheriff Fisher is active on patrol and conducting investigations. He works closely with other departments and agencies, coordinating search and rescue operations in remote areas.
Sheriff Fisher has consistently and selflessly put the well-being of the county ahead of any personal considerations. He is willing to make hard choices to protect our community.
For his continued dedication to Sierra County, organizational leadership, and commitment to public safety, I am honored to include Sheriff Mike Fisher of the Sierra County Sheriff's Department in the Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll.
Officer Shannon Rauls Named to Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll
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Mr. KILEY. Madam Speaker, it is my privilege to name Roseville Police Officer Shannon Rauls to the 2024 Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll. Shannon joined the police academy in May of 2017 and graduated from the academy and was sworn in as a police officer in November of 2017.
Shannon is one of the unsung heroes of the Roseville Police Department. She goes to work every day, works hard, and is an exceptional representation of what it means to be a Roseville police officer.
Officer Rauls became a field training officer just 4 years after she became an officer. Field training officers have the single most important role in the entire department, as they train future officers. She is patient, sets high expectations, is a great teacher, and gives candidates the room to grow and learn.
Officer Rauls also works as a patrol officer and is an outstanding teammate with her fellow officers on patrol. She builds great relationships with her teammates, works hard as part of the team, and will hold teammates accountable when the standards of her team are not being met. She has an exceptionally high standard for herself and makes her peers around her want to raise their standards as well.
Finally, she is one of the original members of the department's reformed honor guard. They represent the entire department when they participate in a fallen officer service or memorial.
For every other assignment in the police department, the division commander has the final approval for who joins the team. However, the police chief personally selects every member of the honor guard because of how important this team is for representing the department.
Most of all, Officer Rauls is an example of what it means to be a Roseville police officer. She is a mentor and role model and an outstanding teammate for her patrol team. She is a great example of what police officers are really like every day, not necessarily what you always see in the news.
Officer Rauls works every day to make her community better, and she is very much deserving of a place in the Third Congressional District Police Honor Roll.
Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
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