House Legislative Hearing Spotlights Moolenaar's Bill Banning Dangerous Robots

Today, the House Energy & Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Communication and Technology held a hearing on the GUARD Act, which is bipartisan legislation led by Chairman John Moolenaar (R-MI) of the Select Committee on China. The legislation requires scrutiny of robots made by China and other foreign adversaries and would prohibit the importation of robots determined to be a national security threat to the United States. 

 "The GUARD Act is vital legislation that will keep the American people safe, help our nation’s robotics industry grow, and ban Chinese robots from our nation’s homes, factories, and fields, ” said Moolenaar. "One day Americans may have robots in their homes and workplaces, and we must ensure Chinese robots with backdoor surveillance tools do not share sensitive data with the CCP. Thank you to Chairmen Guthrie and Hudson for having a hearing on this bipartisan legislation. It should be quickly passed by Congress and signed into law.”

Background

Moolenaar, Congressman Jay Obernolte (R-CA), and Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan (D-VA) introduced the bipartisan Guarding the U.S. Against Adversarial Robotics Dominance (GUARD) Act on June 3. The GUARD Act has endorsements from leading companies and organizations in robotics.

For the full press release announcing the introduction of the GUARD Act and the bill text, click here.