Until then, his chair on the dais of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee had sat empty all year.

Mr. Fetterman does not enjoy participating in these hearings that he has sat through in recent weeks as he seeks to prove that he is capable of performing the job he was elected to do until 2028. In fact, at a critical moment for the country, he appears to have little interest in the day-to-day work of serving in the United States Senate.

In an interview, Mr. Fetterman, who represents 13 million people, said he felt he had been unfairly shamed into fulfilling senatorial duties, such as participating in committee work and casting procedural votes on the floor, dismissing them as a “performative” waste of time.

Ohhhh this mother…

k…,so this is the committee that determined fitness for Trump’s Science Advisor, Michael Kratsios. I literally begged for them to not approve his fitness. I wrote about this here, and fun fact even have a screenshot of me @ing fetterman and others on the committee on bluesky included in the article. Little did I know he wasn’t even bothering to show up bc he thinks it’s “performative…?!”

Quick summary: Kratsios is a protege of Peter Theil, who actually served as Chief Technology Officer during the first Trump administration. During that time, he helped set up all of the dangerous AI shit we’re now dealing with, making sure they wouldn’t be restrained by any pesky regulations.

Unregulated surveillance and facial recognition tech use by ICE, the FBI, and other LEOs, you can thank Kratsios.

Access and use of private government data to train AI, you may think that’s all on DOGE/Musk but that is actually something Kratsios mentioned back in 2018

Senate Dems knew how dangerous deregulated AI was, particularly facial recognition tech for profiling use. Yet, with a few exceptions, they either approved his fitness or they just didn’t show up like Fetterman

I guess it’s ok bc Kratsios is now agreeing maybe we should dial it back and start to regulate AI…

Lol jk, of course he’s actually saying we need to somehow further deregulate it so we will have even less protection for our privacy, rights and liberty.

Thanks Dems of the committee for taking your job so seriously 👍

And OF COURSE Fetterman showed up for this one. Not because he felt like his depression was being weaponized, it’s because he just weaponizes the D next to his name to help force through Republican policy

Here is an article about that May 8, 2025 hearing.

Altman, during the hearing, said that Texas had been “unbelievable” in incentivizing major AI projects. “I think that would be a good thing for other states to study,” Altman said. He predicted that the Abilene site would be the “largest AI training facility in the world.” But Altman also later cautioned against a patchwork regulatory framework for AI.

“It is very difficult to imagine us figuring out how to comply with 50 different sets of regulations,” said Altman. “One federal framework that is light touch, that we can understand, and it lets us move with the speed that this moment calls for, seems important and fine.”

Here is a quote from Kratsios about regulation in 2019

“A patchwork of regulation of technology is not beneficial for the country. We want to avoid that. Facial recognition has important roles—for example, finding lost or displaced children. There are use cases, but they need to be underpinned by values.”

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