Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has emphasized the need for bipartisanship (CHIPS and Science Act style) if Congress is going to pass any AI regulations this year.

• Here's Maria's look at some of the Republican staffers working to get legislation across the finish line. (We profiled top Democratic AI staffers here.)

Senate

Lauren O’Brien, legislative director, and Dan Cheever, legislative assistant, Sen. Todd Young

Young, a key player in CHIPS passage last year, was tapped again by Schumer to help write AI legislation. O’Brien and Cheever will be leading Young’s efforts.

• O’Brien has served in this position for more than three years. She previously worked as a senior policy adviser at Akin Gump.
• Cheever has been with Young since he was a House member, with nearly four years as the lead for his Commerce Committee work.
• In addition, Duncan Wright, a mathematician, is helping Young research policy options and draft legislation as an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow.

Dan Adelstein, national security adviser, Sen. Mike Rounds

Rounds is also part of Schumer's AI group.

• Adelstein has a long history of national security work, advising Rounds since 2015, and before that, Sen. Pat Toomey.

House

Cate Johnson, staff director, House Science, Space and Technology research and technology subcommittee

Johnson joined the Science Committee in 2017 as a professional staff member before moving to the subcommittee.

• She focuses on the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, STEM education, research security, and the Commerce Department's implementation of CHIPS.

Victoria Rubin, professional staff member, House Science, Space and Technology Committee

Rubin is fairly new, having joined the committee about six months ago.

• Rubin previously worked as a professional staff member on the Senate Commerce space and science subcommittee.

Landon Heid, professional staff member, House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party

Heid focuses on U.S.-China tech competition issues.

• He previously worked at the State Department, where his assignments included foreign service officer at the U.S. embassy in Beijing and tech policy officer at the China Coordination Office in D.C.
• In addition, Adam Chan, who graduated from law school last spring, is serving as a national security legal fellow for the committee.

Hallie Coyne, military legislative assistant, House Armed Services Committee vice chair Rob Wittman

Coyne has held this position for more than a year. She previously worked at the American Enterprise Institute as a research associate covering military strategy and defense budget analysis.

• Coyne helped Wittman write a bipartisan bill to accelerate autonomous systems across the U.S. military by establishing a new joint autonomy office in the Defense Department's Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office.

Welcome to another edition of lunch with an insider! Ashley sat down at Piccolina da Centrolina with Niki Christoff, CEO of strategic consultancy Christoff & Co. and alum of Uber, Google and Salesforce in D.C.

• Before doing the rounds at tech companies, Christoff, a Harvard-educated lawyer, worked on John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

• Christoff founded her own company in 2020 after a tour as senior vice president for strategy and government relations at Salesforce, and hosts the podcast Tech'ed Up.

This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

How would you describe the experience of working on a campaign?

When you're working on a losing campaign, it creates really strong friendships, and a lot of people from [McCain's 2008] campaign went on to work in tech.

What is the biggest difference between how regulators regard tech now and when you started at Google in 2007?

I started working in tech before the iPhone was released. Everything was so magical, people were grateful to get new tech. But we didn't know the externalities, and there was no social media....

• The tipping point was in 2013 when the Edward Snowden revelations came out, and it was absolutely a pivot against tech.
• From there, it was a domino effect. ... We went from peacetime to what I would consider wartime, and it's been wartime ever since.

What is working in tech like now, compared to those early days?

[Tech] went from being aligned on almost every single issue to infighting in the industry and throwing each other under the rug. So that is pretty different.

What would surprise people about the tech industry or government relations?

I think lobbying has a PR problem. A lot of times, the teams I've worked with, the time they're spending on the Hill is explaining how things work, explaining technical details, because members of Congress don't have infinite amounts of time to learn every single thing they're covering.

What's your favorite bar in D.C.?

The Lyle Hotel.

What's the biggest misconception about living and working in D.C.?

D.C. is filled up with the most educated, internationally interested, diverse population of a combination of true believers and deep cynics, and there's a culture here.

• People think of it as just a company town, but it's not just that. There is a cool music and restaurant scene. I just feel like these are my people.
• Where else can you go to a bar on St. Patrick's Day and start fighting about Elizabeth Warren and the jobs report? Which is what I did.