Regulatory Consulting at Center for American Progress (CAP)

Overview

The Center for American Progress is a leading progressive think tank whose Technology Policy team has become one of the most vocal counterweights in the federal-versus-state AI regulation fight. Led on tech by Adam Conner, CAP’s AI work spans three connected fronts: opposing federal preemption of state AI laws, defending the labor and civil-rights dimensions of AI policy, and scrutinizing how the executive branch wields AI power. Its position on preemption is unambiguous — CAP has argued that moratoriums and federal preemption of state AI laws pose serious risks, publishing directly against congressional efforts to block states from regulating AI. That places it in direct opposition to market-oriented shops like ITIF and R Street, making CAP essential reading for anyone mapping the full spectrum of the AI-governance debate. CAP also produced one of the more detailed agency-level playbooks in circulation, laying out how existing statutes — from the Fair Labor Standards Act to the Family and Medical Leave Act — empower the Department of Labor to protect workers from AI-related risks to wages, workplace safety, benefits access, and privacy, anchored in the OMB M-24-10 framework for safety- and rights-impacting AI.

AI-Focused Regulatory Work

CAP’s distinctive contribution in 2025–26 has been treating AI policy as a question of concentrated power — corporate and executive alike — rather than purely of innovation or safety. Its ‘Priorities for a National AI Strategy’ laid out an all-of-government framework built on prior federal scaffolding (the Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, the NIST AI Risk Management Framework, the National AI R&D Strategic Plan), and CAP was both a contributor and signatory to the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights’ submission to OSTP — signaling how tightly it ties AI governance to civil rights. Its labor work is equally concrete: CAP has documented how unions are using collective bargaining to win contract provisions that prevent job elimination, limit workplace surveillance and algorithmic management, and let workers share in AI productivity gains, pointing to agreements such as the first-of-its-kind ZeniMax Workers United–CWA deal with Microsoft on AI in the workplace. Most strikingly, CAP has been among the sharpest institutional critics of the executive branch’s posture toward AI companies, publishing extensively in early 2026 on the Pentagon’s conflict with Anthropic and its deal with OpenAI — arguing that when leading AI developers themselves call for new protections, it is a signal for Congress to act rather than defer. Adam Conner has pressed that case across op-eds and CAP events with defense and AI experts. For a directory reader, CAP is the progressive pole of the AI-policy spectrum: it supplies the strongest available arguments for state authority, worker power, and congressional oversight of executive AI decisions.

Notable AI Policy Work

• Published ‘Moratoriums and Federal Preemption of State Artificial Intelligence Laws Pose Serious Risks’ (Nov 2025), CAP’s core argument against congressional efforts to preempt state AI regulation — the direct counterpoint to ITIF and R Street.
• Produced ‘Priorities for a National AI Strategy,’ an all-of-government framework of executive and legislative recommendations, submitted to OSTP and developed alongside the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
• Published a detailed Department of Labor playbook showing how existing statutes (FLSA, FMLA) empower DOL to protect workers from AI risks to wages, workplace safety, benefits, and privacy — anchored in OMB M-24-10’s safety- and rights-impacting AI framework.
• Documented how unions use collective bargaining to govern workplace AI — preventing job elimination, limiting surveillance and algorithmic management, and sharing productivity gains — including the ZeniMax Workers United–CWA agreement with Microsoft.
• Published sustained 2026 analysis of the Department of Defense’s conflict with Anthropic and its deal with OpenAI, arguing both are a call for Congress to act on AI protections; convened public events with AI and defense experts.
• Hosts congressional convenings on AI leadership and innovation (e.g., ‘American Leadership in AI, Science, and Innovation: A Conversation With Sen. Mark Kelly,’ Dec 2025).

Thought Leadership

1. Moratoriums and Federal Preemption of State AI Laws Pose Serious Risks (Nov 2025)
   CAP’s central argument against congressional preemption of state AI laws — the progressive counterpoint to the pro-preemption case made by ITIF and R Street.
2. Priorities for a National AI Strategy
   CAP’s all-of-government AI framework and OSTP submission, building on the AI Bill of Rights blueprint, the NIST AI RMF, and the National AI R&D Strategic Plan.
3. Taking Further Agency Action on AI — Department of Labor chapter
   A statute-by-statute playbook for how DOL can use existing authorities to protect workers from AI risks to wages, safety, benefits, and privacy.
4. Unions Give Workers a Voice Over How AI Affects Their Jobs
   Documents how collective bargaining is becoming a real AI-governance mechanism — limiting algorithmic management and surveillance and protecting jobs.
5. CAP Technology Policy team
   CAP’s technology-policy hub, including Adam Conner’s ongoing commentary on AI safety, executive power, and the DOD’s dealings with frontier AI labs.

Clients

Nonprofit progressive think tank; no commercial clients. Engages Congress, federal agencies (OSTP, DOL, OMB), and coalition partners including the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and organized labor (notably CWA). Its sister organization, CAP Action, carries the advocacy side of this work.