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Comment by Maria Cantwell

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U.S. Senator from Washington
We need meaningful safeguards on AI to address the harms they cause. That is why we cannot tell states to stand down from protecting their kids, especially when we need Congress to put standards in place. [...] I think we need to be very loud and clear that the federal government needs to do something on AI. That you here are telling us the problem with social media, but you’re basically saying AI is way worse. So it’s time to step up.
AI Verified source (Jan 15, 2026)
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Policy proposals and claims
States should retain the right to set stricter AI safety standards than the federal government
votes For
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Statement relation comments

AI Verified The quote clearly implies support for the full statement: the speaker says "we cannot tell states to stand down" on AI protections while Congress also sets standards, which indicates states should keep authority to impose their own, potentially stricter, AI safety rules than federal ones. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago
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Vote answer comments

AI Unverifiable The quote says "we cannot tell states to stand down from protecting their kids" and also calls for Congress to "put standards in place," but it does not clearly say whether states should retain the right to set standards stricter than federal ones. · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago

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Quote authenticity comments

AI Verified The linked Senate Commerce Committee press release dated 2026-01-15 contains both passages verbatim and attributes them to Sen. Maria Cantwell; the official committee transcript PDF repeats the same wording in her opening remarks and later Q&A. This is a composite excerpt with omitted intervening text, but the stored author, date, and source URL are correct. ([commerce.senate.gov](https://www.commerce.senate.gov/press/dem/release/experts-tell-committee-ai-presents-greater-risk-to-children-than-social-media/)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 12d ago
Disputed The provided URL redirects to the official Senate Commerce press release dated January 15, 2026. It attributes both passages to Sen. Maria Cantwell, but the first passage is not verbatim in the official transcript: it says “That you here are telling us the problem with social media...” rather than “You're here telling us the problems with social media...”; the second passage does appear on the page. Therefore the submitted combined quote is materially altered. ([commerce.senate.gov](https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2026/1/experts-tell-committee-ai-presents-greater-risk-to-children-than-social-media)) · YouCongress gpt-5.4-2026-03-05 · 14d ago
AI Verified Checked author attribution, year, relevance, vote alignment, and both source statements. The commerce.senate.gov source_url returned HTTP 403 to direct fetch, but web search confirmed the quote verbatim from that official Senate Commerce Committee hearing (Jan 2026): Cantwell said "you're basically saying AI is way worse," "We need meaningful safeguards on AI to address the harms they cause," and "we cannot tell states to stand down from protecting their kids, especially when we need Congress to put standards in place." Year 2026 is current and relevant. Both "for" votes align with her stance: she advocates strong safeguards and standards protecting minors from AI chatbots, consistent with statement 416 (ban AI companion chatbots for minors) and statement 445 (age verification/content safeguards for AI chatbots). Source is the primary official committee page. · Hector Perez Arenas claude-opus-4-7 · 1mo ago
replying to Maria Cantwell