Newsom signs executive order to accelerate an AI "kill switch" and tells Mike Johnson to follow California's lead
Governor of California, posting on his official X account and through his office's official press release
“Today I'm signing an executive order to speed up a first in America AI safety policy that we have here in California. [...] It dramatically speeds up our new law, creating a framework for truly independent safety checks, independent verification organizations, as well as moving the timeline up for oversight of AI auditors up by a full year. [...] California will do what it can, but this nation needs to get in the game. Washington DC needs to do its job. Remarkably, they left for a summer break. Mike Johnson should return from vacation and follow California's lead by passing national legislation. Get it done. That's what leadership requires, setting a comprehensive safety framework as a floor. [...] And if Congress, again, won't act, California will.”
Source and context
Official statement
About this source
Official California governor's office release, September 18, 2026, announcing an executive order that accelerates implementation timelines for SB 813 (independent verification organizations) and AB 1405 (AI auditor registry), and directs state agencies to convene experts on further measures including a frontier-model "kill switch." It cites the Hugging Face attack as a motivating incident and explicitly calls on Congress and Trump to adopt California's framework as a national floor. This is the fuller official record of the same announcement Newsom posted to X the same day.
Original post
About this source
Newsom's own X announcement of the same executive order covered in the official gov.ca.gov release. The attached video is fuller than the caption: Newsom names Speaker Mike Johnson directly, says "Mike Johnson should return from vacation and follow California's lead," references SB 53 and the Hugging Face hack, and says "if Congress, again, won't act, California will."
Before the quotation
The House had adjourned early the previous week for a seven-week recess without acting on AI legislation. Governors Shapiro (Pennsylvania) and Pritzker (Illinois) had each invoked their own states' AI-safety records earlier the same day in calling for federal action.
After the quotation
Speaker Johnson has separately said AI companies can self-regulate and rejected a moratorium. California's SB 53, the nation's first frontier-AI safety law, was signed in 2025; SB 813 and AB 1405 were signed the week before this executive order.
How this statement is classified
Case context: Should Washington impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI?
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
The case's fixed reference point is the proposition that Washington should impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI. Newsom endorses it directly, both through his own state action and by explicitly calling on Congress, naming Speaker Johnson, to pass comparable federal legislation. That places him with the same week's cluster of Democratic officials making this argument: Jeffries (985), Ansari (988), Crow (995), Shapiro (1011) and Pritzker (1013). The closest competing label is condemns, since the statement criticizes Trump and Congress as "asleep at the wheel"; that loses because the criticism is that they have failed to enact safeguards Newsom supports, which endorses the proposition. Unlike Shapiro and Pritzker, Newsom's statement is backed by an actual executive order and existing state law (SB 53, SB 813, AB 1405) rather than a stated aspiration alone.
- Recorded on
- Published here
- People and groups discussed
- Mike Johnson
Should Washington impose stronger safeguards on frontier AI?
Explore the case context, sources and public responses.
More from this case
Read the full case“I joined @RepYassAnsari and more than two dozen @HouseDemocrats in urging Donald Trump to take urgent action to address the serious risks posed by frontier AI.”Read statement
“This idea that if we regulate AI, that China will win, is not true. And the way that we know that is because China regulates AI. They have the most regulation of their AI than any country in the world... So the tech bros in the U.S. that say if we regulate AI, the Chinese going to win - that's a self-serving argument. That isn't true.”Read statement
“AI has enormous potential to drive scientific discovery, strengthen key industries, improve public services, and create new opportunities for businesses and residents across Massachusetts. At the same time, the rapid pace of AI development raises serious concerns about safety, accountability, privacy, civil rights, the future of work, and public trust. We cannot allow this technology to move faster than our ability to put appropriate safeguards in place, and we can't let the responsibility for managing these risks rest with technology companies alone. We need strong action on both the state and federal levels.”Read statement