Government Oversight & Ethics
California Rep. Ted Lieu, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Tuesday that attacking shipwrecked survivors is a crime of war, and that any member of the U.S. military involved in such actions — including Defense secretary Pete Hegseth — should be punished.
“I served on active duty as a JAG for four years, and then an additional 21 years in the reserves. And let me be very clear: Killing shipwrecked survivors is a war crime,” he told reporters in the Capitol.
Rep. Ted Lieu, vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, said the Department of Justice must conduct an investigation into a second strike of a vessel accused of trafficking drugs off the coast of Venezuela.
Lieu, who served in the United States Air Force JAG corps, said killing shipwreck survivors is a war crime.
He said the DOJ’s investigation should also include a review of Hegseth’s actions as defense secretary.
Meanwhile, at the Democrats press conference earlier, representative Ted Lieu of California called on Pete Hegseth to resign, saying the defense secretary lied about the second strike on the suspected drug-smuggling boat and “and threw Admiral Bradley under the bus”.
A handful of US representatives have reacted furiously to a leaked recording in which the special envoy to Ukraine reportedly coached Moscow on how to handle Donald Trump, but most have so far remained mute on the revelation that American officials were advising a US adversary.
A new bipartisan bill introduced in the House would increase the criminal penalties for committing fraud and impersonation with the assistance of AI tools.
The AI Fraud Deterrence Act, introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., and Neal Dunn, R-Md., would raise the overall ceiling for criminal fines and prison time for fraudsters who use AI tools to create convincing fake audio, video or texts to carry out their schemes.
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congressman Neal Dunn, M.D. (R-FL) introduced the AI Fraud Deterrence Act, which would enhance penalties for those who use artificial intelligence to commit fraud. The AI Fraud Deterrence Act would increase the maximum penalties for various kinds of fraud that could be committed with the assistance of AI, including for the impersonation of a federal official.
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) and Congressman Don Bacon (R-NE) led a bipartisan letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought urging him to enact full funding for the Office of Space Commerce (OSC). Recent reporting indicates that OMB notified OSC that it was only entitled to an annual budget of $37 million, which representants a 40 percent cut from its $65 million Congressionally authorized budget.
WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County), Congresswoman Sara Jacobs (D-CA), and Congressman Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, introduced legislation that guarantees individuals held at immigration detention centers have access to congressional constituent casework services upon request.
The House on Tuesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill directing the Department of Justice to release the files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a move that came after months of intense opposition from President Trump and GOP leaders.
WASHINGTON – Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County), one of three Computer Science Majors in Congress, spoke at a TedX Talk in Los Angeles where he made the case for strong regulation of AI, calling it "insane" to not do so as soon as possible. In his talk, Rep. Lieu draws a parallel to the creation of the modern FDA in the 1930s, which happened after more than 100 people died due to unregulated medicine containing anti-freeze.