CES2026: From Innovation to Guardrails, Senators Confront Tech’s Next Phase

LAS VEGAS, Jan. 9, 2026 — Democratic senators at a CES panel argued that federal policy must move faster to address broadband affordability, artificial intelligence safeguards, biotechnology security, and autonomous systems, warning that access gaps and weak data governance threaten both economic competitiveness and public trust.

The discussion, held during the Consumer Electronics Show and moderated by Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., took place as technology companies rolled out new AI, semiconductor, and mobility platforms. Rosen, a former computer programmer, framed the session around how lawmakers could promote innovation while identifying where guardrails were needed to prevent harm.

Sen. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., ranking member of the Senate Communications Subcommittee, said closing the digital divide remained foundational to nearly every emerging technology now entering the market. He cited the $42.5 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment program, but said infrastructure alone would not solve the problem.

Broadband affordability

Luján said roughly 90 million Americans live in households that cannot afford broadband service even where networks are available. He said the Universal Service Fund, administered by the Federal Communications Commission, had not been modernized to reflect how Americans now access and use broadband.

The USF supports programs including Lifeline for low-income households, E-Rate for schools and libraries, Rural Health Care, and High-Cost support for remote areas. Luján said the contribution base, still tied largely to interstate telecommunications revenues, was shrinking as demand for broadband subsidies increased. He said a bipartisan Universal Service Fund Working Group was examining reforms to stabilize funding and expand eligibility.

Luján also pointed to New Mexico’s Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories, where federally funded researchers rely on high-performance computing, AI models, and secure data environments. He said universal connectivity was necessary to ensure that the benefits of federally funded research extend beyond a narrow set of institutions.

Health data and AI bias

Health care, Luján said, illustrated the stakes of data quality. He cited pharmaceutical research on leukemia treatments that showed strong overall results but failed to improve outcomes for Hispanic and Native American children, because those populations were largely absent from clinical trial data.

When participation was expanded and those gaps corrected, outcomes improved and lives were saved, he said.

“That’s a data problem,” Luján said, warning that AI systems trained on incomplete datasets would reproduce those failures at scale unless policymakers scrutinized inputs as closely as outputs.

Biotechnology and national security

Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, focused on biotechnology, data security, and autonomous systems. He said advances in genomics, AI-assisted diagnostics, and bioengineering were creating economic opportunity but also introducing security risks that policy had not fully addressed.

Peters cited the BIOSECURE Act, bipartisan legislation aimed at keeping sensitive biomedical and genomic data out of foreign hands. The measure, passed as part of the most recent defense authorization bill, would restrict federal funding and contracts with certain biotechnology firms and tighten oversight of federally funded biological data.

Peters warned that mishandled genetic data could be exploited to develop targeted biological weapons or surveillance tools, elevating data protection from a commercial issue to a national security concern.

Automated driving and commercialization 

Shifting from policy safeguards to deployment, Peters pointed to Michigan as a test case for how emerging technologies move from research into commercial use. He said the state’s auto industry was undergoing a structural shift as manufacturers integrate AI, advanced sensors, and new semiconductor platforms into vehicles.

When Rosen cited Nvidia’s recent announcement of a new semiconductor chip designed for autonomous and software-defined vehicles, Peters said such advances were accelerating the transition from testing to real-world deployment and increasing pressure on regulators to adapt.

Transportation safety 

Transportation safety also featured prominently. 

Peters cited federal data showing more than 40,000 people die on U.S. roads each year, largely due to human error. Advanced driver-assistance systems and autonomous technologies could significantly reduce fatalities if deployed with clear standards and accountability, he added.

Peters said lawmakers were also working with safety advocates and victims’ groups as automation advances. Peters referenced the HALT Act, supported by a coalition formed by families affected by impaired- and distracted-driving fatalities that has pushed for mandatory in-vehicle safety technologies.

The group has argued that driver-monitoring systems, impaired-driving detection, and automated intervention features could prevent thousands of deaths annually. Peters said those proposals reflected how emerging technology, paired with clear federal standards, could deliver immediate public-safety benefits. 

Rosen closed the discussion by pressing panelists on unintended consequences, including bias in AI systems trained on historical data. Peters said transparency around training data and decision-making processes was essential when AI systems are used in government services, procurement, or public safety, underscoring a shared view that federal tools must evolve as emerging technologies move from labs into daily life.