Mark Warner AI agenda targets financial risk, data centers and cyber rules

Sen. Mark Warner introduced a broad AI agenda that would extend federal oversight into financial markets, banking, consumer services, critical infrastructure and national security. The Virginia Democrat said on the Senate floor that Congress should set guardrails before artificial intelligence becomes harder to regulate across the economy.

Warner, a member of the Senate Finance, Banking and Budget committees, organized the package around four areas: infrastructure, competition and safety, workforce disruption and national security. His office described the agenda as including six new bills, additional planned legislation and measures that have been introduced before.

What is in Mark Warner's AI agenda?

The package would address AI-generated market manipulation, autonomous consumer agents, data center disclosures, job retraining and cybersecurity testing for advanced models. Warner said the objective is to guide AI development while limiting risks to markets, workers and national security.

A central financial measure is Warner’s planned reintroduction of the bipartisan Financial Artificial Intelligence Risk Reduction Act. According to Warner, the bill would direct financial regulators to confront AI-generated content that could disrupt markets.

Warner told the Senate that more sophisticated AI content raises risks of fraud, deception and manipulation affecting both markets and democratic institutions. The concern is that fabricated text, images, audio or video could impersonate executives, public officials or institutions and move prices before the material is verified.

The proposal reflects a broader market-structure problem: false information can spread quickly through digital channels, while authentication may take longer than trading systems or investors need to react. If regulators were given explicit AI-related duties, agencies overseeing banks, securities markets and other financial activity would be expected to address those risks within their mandates.

How would the AI agent bill affect consumer finance?

Warner also plans the Artificial Intelligence Access, Gatekeeper Exchange, and Nondiscriminatory Transfer Act, known as the AI AGENT Act. The measure would set rules for consumer-facing AI agents, including systems that may act for users when they shop, communicate or conduct financial transactions.

Warner said Americans would need confidence that AI systems used for shopping, banking, communication, medical advice and internet access serve their interests rather than exploit them. Under the proposal, agents with access to sensitive data, including email, e-commerce accounts and payment credentials, would have fiduciary-like duties to protect users.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology would write technical standards, and the Federal Trade Commission would maintain a registry of trusted agents. For banks, payment companies and financial technology platforms, that structure could raise new questions over authentication, account access, cybersecurity, liability and responsibility for transactions initiated by AI tools.

Another bill, the Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, would require large AI data centers to report electricity and water use, emissions, backup generation and other operating effects. It would also link federal bonus depreciation to efficiency and sustainability standards. Warner’s plan would use revenue from limiting that tax benefit to help fund a National Workforce Transition Fund.

Warner said AI could pose particular disruption for white-collar work, citing jobs in business, finance, marketing, software development, customer support and other knowledge-based occupations. The workforce fund would support retraining, portable training accounts, employer redeployment programs and tuition help.

The national security portion includes the Secure AI Development Act. Warner’s plan would require secure testing before advanced AI models are deployed, improve reporting between government and industry on AI cybersecurity weaknesses and create voluntary incident reporting modeled on aviation safety systems.

Under that bill, the National Security Agency would lead testing of frontier AI models. Federal vulnerability databases and related processes would also be revised to account for AI-specific security risks.

Warner compared the effort with Congress’s handling of social media, saying lawmakers largely watched as those platforms reshaped politics, the economy and children’s lives. He told the Senate that Congress should not repeat that approach with artificial intelligence.

This story draws on original reporting from PYMNTS.