Guardrails Action leads nearly 40 groups' AI demands for Congress

The letter arrives as a marker of where a slice of the progressive and labor world wants AI policy to land. Guardrails Action is not acting alone: it is the nonprofit arm of Guardrails Alliance, the super PAC launched in June as a counterweight to pro-AI election groups, and the nearly 40 signatories span labor, faith, progressive, and AI safety organizations. That breadth matters because the coalition is explicitly framing its principles as a floor rather than a wish list, and pairing it with a warning of "active, mobilized opposition" to bills that fall short. The group's demands combine process goals — independent, transparent oversight with real enforcement power — with limits on what AI may decide, such as denying health care or benefits, firing or disciplining workers, or deploying weapons, and with a call for AI to be a "universal benefit." Maya Handa, a senior adviser at Guardrails and a former adviser and campaigner for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, framed the ask as aimed at members of Congress and 2028 candidates, saying half measures are not enough and that they need to be ambitious. The reference to 2028 signals the group intends to keep the issue alive beyond the current Congress, with plans to organize a coalition around a "populist demand for AI-related policy."