Anthropic, the company behind Claude, has shared a draft federal Bill with members of Congress that would set national safety and security rules for the most powerful frontier AI models. The Bill materializes the ideas in Anthropic's "Advanced AI Framework," published in June 2026, which aims to guard against the most serious AI risks without stifling innovation. In that framework, the rules would apply only to the largest AI developers, i.e., those that train very large models and either earn more than $500 million a year from AI or spend more than $1 billion a year on AI research.

The Bill would require covered developers to test their models for serious risks, publish safety plans, release public reports on new models, protect whistleblowers, and report major safety incidents to the Department of Commerce (DOC). Outside evaluators registered with the DOC would be required to regularly review each developer and its models, and would have to report any "imminent enumerated risk" to the DOC within 72 hours. This Bill leverages language from California's recently passed AI laws, and would allow the government to block a model's release or use only if it poses a foreseeable, near-term risk of more than $1 billion in damage or of killing or seriously injuring more than 50 people, and that risk must come from a biological weapon, a cyberattack, or the model escaping its developer's control. Even then, only the DOC could act, and only by asking a federal judge in D.C. to halt the model, while all other federal agencies would be barred from suspending it. Based on recently disclosed incident reports from leading AI labs, no damages over $1 billion or widespread deaths have occurred so far.

Notably, this is an early, private draft, and it is one of several competing AI safety proposals being considered in Congress. Businesses that operate throughout many states should watch closely, because the bill would override some state AI laws on risk disclosure, outside evaluation, and incident reporting. Companies that build, buy, or depend on advanced AI tools should discuss safety testing, incident reporting, and security practices with their current AI vendors, as these will likely to shape future contracts and compliance expectations.

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