Video: Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) Warns “the red lights are flashing right now” on AI; Need Strong Federal Regulations on Data Centers

See below for video and highlights of Rep. James Walkinshaw (D-VA11) speaking to C-SPAN this morning.

• On AI: “I think what we’re hearing from AI experts and researchers and folks inside AI companies, the frontier labs is that, you know, the red lights are flashing right now. Increasingly they’re unable to control the AI models that they’re creating and they’re actually
  begging Congress to act and to regulate them. Different perspectives on how that should happen. But I think it’s very very serious and we should be here working on it. And it is an area – with exception of the president and some of my Republican colleagues –  but there are Democrats and Republicans who are somewhat of like mind on this and would like to get something done. I think we should have transparency around the models. There should be independent third-party review and testing, safety testing of new fronttier models before they can be released. There should be a kill switch on frontier models so if they get out of control, they can be shut off by a human. being. And another key piece of this – and President Trump has an opportunity to do this in the coming days when he meets with President Xi Jinping – is to engage in a dialogue with China to see if we can find common ground and agreement around AI safety. Look, China has as much if not more at risk as the United States here if we don’t address these AI safety issues, and we should try to develop some partnerships with them to to to improve AI safety.”
• On the Trump-Xi summit possibly making progress on AI:  “I’m not optimistic given, you know, President Trump’s posture thus far related to this AI safety conversation. He basically is telling the American people not to worry about it. I I think he’s I think he’s wrong about that. I think the American people think he’s wrong about that. My hope is that between now and the meetings with Xi Jinping, the president will change his tune and change his approach and at least kick off a robust dialogue about the ways that the United States and China can can work together to address this issue.”
• On data centers: “So Virginia is the data center capital of the world. My district, the 11th district of Virginia, which is basically Fairfax County outside the Beltway, has relatively few data centers, depending on how you categorize them, might have 10 to 15 data centers. Nearby, Loudoun County, which is not in my district, has 200 data centers and has at least a hundred more in the pipeline. Look, I think we need strong regulations around data centers. Yesterday I voted  for the Ratepayer Protection Act to ensure that residential ratepayers don’t pay a dime of the energy costs that data centers create. We need environmental protections around water use and the emissions that they create. We need some federal siting standards. And my colleague here in Virginia, Suhas Subramanyam, has put together a package of bills. Virginia Senator Mark Warner has put together a package of bills. I think there’s a role for the federal government and we also can ensure that communities have have a voice before data centers can be built in their communities.”
• On the Federal Reserve raising interest rates 0.25 points yesterday: “Well, look, I want to see interest rates come down like everyone else. But for interest rates to come down, we need inflation to come down. And unfortunately, President Trump’s policies, the tariffs, the war in Iran, the so-called ‘big beautiful bill’, and the tax cuts to corporations and billionaires, all of those things have driven up inflation, putting the Fed, I think, in a position where they really had no choice given the way that inflation is rising, to increase interest rates. So, we need to address those policies from Washington that are driving up inflation and interest rates. And that’s another reason that I think Congress should be here working instead of home campaigning or vacationing.”
• On impeaching Pete Hegseth:  “I think Secretary Hegseth has proven himself wholly incompetent to do the job. The chaos he has created within the Pentagon and the Department of Defense,  firing some of our most qualified military leaders seemingly for political or personal reasons makes him unfit to continue to lead the Pentagon. Had Speaker Johnson allowed a vote on that impeachment of Pete Hegseth, I would have voted for it.”