House Judiciary Committee adopts rules, expands subcommittee AI jurisdiction and ratifies rosters

The House Judiciary Committee adopted its rules for the 118th Congress and ratified subcommittee chairs and membership rosters during an organizational meeting, with the measures passing by voice vote.

Representative Jordan, the committee chair, opened the business by summarizing proposed rule changes and urging adoption. The committee’s rules were adopted after members responded to a voice vote; the clerk reported 31 members present before the vote. Representative Raskin, the ranking member from Maryland, said the changes were noncontroversial and indicated no objection. “If we're going to have some substantive disagreements, in the days ahead, today is not one of those days,” Raskin said.

The adopted rules include several jurisdictional adjustments intended to address emerging technologies. As summarized on the floor, the changes add “artificial intelligence” to the name and jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet; clarify that the subcommittee retains jurisdiction over patents, trademarks and trade secrets; and vest jurisdiction over the effect of regulation of artificial intelligence with the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government and the Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust. The rules also rename the Subcommittee on Responsiveness and Accountability to an oversight-focused subcommittee with jurisdiction over the operations and activities of agencies and components within the full committee’s scope. Representative Jordan said, “These changes are necessary to improve the committee operations and to ensure that we are conducting the sort of constitutional oversight that the American people expect from us.”

A voice vote approved the rules; the chair declared, “The ayes have it and the rules are adopted.” The committee authorized staff to make technical and conforming changes to the published text. Pursuant to House rules, the adopted rules will be published in the Congressional Record and posted on the committee website, the chair said.

The committee next ratified subcommittee assignments, including chairs and ranking members, and approved the full subcommittee rosters. Those actions were also approved by voice vote with no recorded roll-call tally recorded in the transcript. The chair said the rosters were prepared by each party and reflected the chairs and ranking members as distributed.

Earlier in the meeting, members introduced new colleagues who joined the committee this Congress and offered brief biographical notes. Introductions and welcoming remarks named Representative Sydney Kamlager Dove; Representative Jared Moskowitz; Representative Dan Goldman; Representative Jasmine Crockett; and Representative Becca Ballant among Democrats introduced by the ranking member. The chair introduced new Republican members, including a list of members by district and prior service. The chair closed the meeting after the roster votes, calling it the committee’s quickest meeting in history.

The session concluded with formal adjournment. No contested roll-call votes or amendments to the proposed rules were recorded in the transcript.