Lieu and Moran Introduce AI Kill Switch Act (H.R. 9917), Letting DHS Order Shutdown of Covered AI Systems

Reps. Ted Lieu and Nathaniel Moran introduced H. R. 9917, the AI Kill Switch Act, on July 23, 2026, and it was referred to the House Committee on Homeland Security. It would add Section 2220F to the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The bill reaches a “covered entity” that makes an AI system available to third parties and “not less than $500,000,000 in gross revenue” from it, where the system was built with computing power “the cost of which would exceed $100,000,000.”

Covered entities would have to maintain the technical ability to stop inference, terminate or suspend user access, and shut the system down. If the Secretary of Homeland Security, consulting the Commerce Secretary and the Director of National Intelligence, determines a “covered incident” occurred (sabotage of a shutdown instruction, concealment from a monitoring mechanism, a loss-of-control scenario, or conduct that “causes the death of not fewer than 10 individuals or economic damages of not less than $100,000,000”), the Secretary may order action. A company may petition for reconsideration within 48 hours, but the petition “does not stay such order.”

Civil penalties run to $2,000,000 per day for violating the section and $20,000,000 per day for violating an emergency order.