AI for Main Street Act

What is this bill?

• HR 5764, sponsored by Mark Alford (R-MO-4)

  • co-sponsored by:

    • Gil Cisneros (D-CA-31)

    • Josh Harder (D-CA-9)

    • Hillary Scholten (D-MI-3)

    • Eugene Vindman (D-VA-7)

This bill would amend section 21(c)(3) of the Small Business Act, which pertains to services required by small business development center to offer.

The one non-formatting amendment in this bill would require that development centers assist small businesses “in evaluating artificial intelligence concerning operations” by:

• “providing information, guidance, and training…including best practices for using artificial intelligence…using artificial intelligence to plan for unexpected circumstances, protect data and intellectual property, improve cybersecurity, facilitate regulatory compliance, and improve customer trust and…incorporating artificial intelligence into business operations-”

• “conducting outreach to the extent practical to small business concerns regarding the use of artificial intelligence.”

What makes this bill fascist?

A very simple refrain I’ve seen repeated and I thoroughly agree with is that AI is the aesthetic of fascism. Whether it be the slop produced for Twitter by the various government departments all the way to lazy troll shitposts, AI has become the predominant artistic style of the United States’ fascist movement. That said, this goes beyond just plagiarized art. It is a push for a technology designed to replace the people that its creators view as obsolete: office workers, artists, writers. The people who are standing between CEOs and higher profits. Which breeds, as Umberto Eco put it in Ur-Fascism, a contempt for the ‘weak,' aka subordinates.

I also have to mention the harm AI does to workers, the environment, and people. Simply put, any bill that requires AI to be depicted as a net positive, despite the dangers & its intertwined relationship with fascism, is automatically fascist.

Which Dems voted for it?

• House (199 Dems)

  • Due to the volume of Democrats that voted yea for this bill, it’ll just be easiest to list who voted nay or were absent

  • Nay (3 Dems)

    • Lizzie Fletcher (TX-7)

    • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14)

    • Rashida Tlaib (MI-12)

  • Not Voting/Absent (11 Dems)

    • Greg Casar (TX-35)

    • Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (FL-20)

    • Jasmine Crockett (TX-30)

    • Chrissy Houlahan (PA-6)

    • April McClain Delaney (MD-6)

    • Nancy Pelosi (CA-1)

    • Mark Pocan (WI-2)

    • Delia Ramirez (IL-3)

    • Hillary Scholten (MI-3)

    • Eric Swalwell (CA-14)

    • Frederica Wilson (FL-24)

Did this bill pass?

• passed the House on 1/20/26 by a vote of 393-14