House Democrats reintroduce bill to put CISA in charge of an AI task force

On October 8, 2026, Reps. Troy Carter and Bennie Thompson reintroduced the CISA Securing AI Task Force Act, a bill that would direct the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to stand up its own dedicated AI task force.

The reintroduction followed separate reporting that the White House's own AI task force, created in early October 2026, had not placed CISA in a lead role over critical-infrastructure security work.

What it is

The CISA Securing AI Task Force Act is a House bill that would establish a task force within the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Department of Homeland Security dedicated to addressing safety and national security challenges posed by AI.

By contrast, the White House's separately created task force was described as one that would coordinate the federal government's engagement with consumers, public interest groups, religious organizations, critical infrastructure providers and AI companies.

That White House task force's critical infrastructure and workforce work is handled by Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor, and reporting found CISA has not been named to lead or even confirmed to be participating in those efforts.

What it requires

Within one year of enactment, the bill would require the Director of CISA to establish a task force made up of personnel from various offices and divisions to coordinate AI-related directives and activities.

The task force would be responsible for coordinating efforts to improve the safe and secure design, development, adoption, and deployment of AI.

It would also assess relevant safety and security initiatives, advise stakeholders on potential cyber risks associated with AI deployment, and identify workforce gaps.

The bill would require the task force to provide biannual briefings to the House Committee on Homeland Security and the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on its activities.

What security leaders should do

Security leaders in critical infrastructure sectors should track both tracks in parallel: the statutory proposal that would formally anchor AI security coordination inside CISA, and the White House task force's own workstreams on critical infrastructure and incident reporting, which are currently run through the Office of Personnel Management rather than CISA. Until Congress acts on this bill or the administration clarifies CISA's role in writing, organizations should continue routing AI-related incident information through existing CISA channels rather than assuming a single federal point of contact has been established. Compliance teams should also watch for whether any future incident-disclosure expectations announced by the White House task force's leaders get formally tied to CISA processes, since the two efforts currently describe overlapping but separately staffed critical-infrastructure functions.