SEATTLE — Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal says the warnings by AI engineers should be heeded by Congress, after a former Anthropic employee was the latest to warn about the potential dangers of leaving the emerging technology unregulated.
“60% of my constituents work for these companies, but they want regulation as well. They want their companies to not be surveilling people. They want these companies to allow for democracy in these industries.” Jayapal said in an interview with KIRO 7.
Jayapal says she has been working in a bipartisan fashion on changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This week, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul posted on social media that he was concerned about a report claiming the company FLOCK trained law enforcement on how to track demonstrators at No Kings Rally across the country.
“We share core values across ideology and party about Americans’ protections under our Constitution to not be surveilled, to not have their information shared, and to make sure that the government is not spying on us.”
Tariffs
A report from the National Tax Union Foundation found Washingtonians have spent more than $7 billion on tariffs. That’s before newly enacted tariffs on Canadian products were announced. KIRO7 asked Rep. Jayapal about any help for Washington Families.
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “Washingtonians by average household are spending $2,200 more on tariffs than what they would have. Is there any relief for people from that?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “Yes, I mean, the tariffs have been absolutely outrageous. There’s no strategy, there’s no investment. We are alienating our closest trading partners like Canada.”
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “A lot of the money spent on tariffs has been refunded to businesses, not trickling down to consumers. Is there anything Congress can do to try to get that to individual Americans?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “We have done a lot of things to demand that the companies pass on those tariff refunds if they’re getting them. And we’re not seeing that happen.”
“This is all going to culminate in hopefully, Democrats taking back the House in November.”
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “If Democrats do take control of the Congress, what would refunds look like from Tariffs?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “We will stop that immediately. And then we’re going to have to put in place a way that those tariff-free funds can go directly. To consumers. And so we’re working on a number of different ways that we can do that. But the first step is stop these tariffs.”
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “The president announced $5,000 dividend checks if Republicans hold onto the Congress. Is that a way to get tariff money back into America?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “No, look, this is ridiculous. This president has driven up the price of gas for Americans with this senseless war of choice, unauthorized war of choice that he started in Iran. He’s taken away health care for tens of millions of Americans. This has all happened on his watch.”
Bite of Seattle Response
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “Can you take us through the timeline from your perspective, from when you found out to when you got to the center?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “I was immediately on my phone to my staff, trying to find out everything I could, reached out to the mayor’s office, was on briefing calls at 8 o’ clock and 9 o’clock with the mayor’s team and with the governor available for anything that needed to happen. My experience in 10 years of Congress is you need to be out there immediately.”
“That’s what I encouraged the mayor to do quickly, make sure people are being briefed on everything that needs to happen.”
“We didn’t know this was a mass shooting; was this something that we needed the FBI and DHS involved in, and so I was trying to make sure that I had the federal resources lined up and was told on the 8 o’clock call that we should all stay away from the Seattle Center, which made sense to me.”
“At 10 o’clock, 10:10, got a call from the mayor’s office, my staff did, saying there was going to be a press conference at the Seattle Center, headed over there immediately, got there at 10:40 and was ready, but was frankly. Didn’t understand why there had been no briefings of what was going on until that time.”
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “Were they waiting on you when you got there?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “I think the mayor got there at around 10:30. So I got there at 10:40. So maybe they waited 10 minutes for me and the governor.”
“I don’t know what happened between 6 o’clock and 10:10 when I got the call to head down there.”
Brandon Thompson, KIRO7: “Did you encourage the mayor’s office to release information any sooner, or what were those conversations?”
Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal: “You know, during the briefing calls, I just made it clear, I thought it was important to be out there to coordinate, to pull people together, and assumed that that was what was happening.”
These interview segments were edited for time.
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