House amendment responding to Pentagon-Anthropic conflict fails committee vote

Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., walks down the House steps after a vote in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

An amendment to the Defense Production Act that would have specifically forbidden government agencies from blacklisting firms that refuse to deploy their high-risk technology products in situations that could harm U.S. citizens failed to move forward during a House Financial Services Committee markup on Wednesday.

The proposal was rejected in a 16-25 vote.

Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., introduced the amendment in response to the ongoing fallout between the Department of Defense and Anthropic after the company refused to relax their AI safety standards for Pentagon deployment. 

As a result, President Donald Trump ordered all federal agencies to begin offloading Anthropic products from government workflows over the course of the next six months. 

“A $380 billion hyperscaler, Anthropic has warned ...