AUTHENTICALLY SPEAKING • May 17, 2026
A Sunday newsletter from Lisa Camooso Miller
The year Washington ran out of excuses to look away
Two weeks. Four conversations. Two shows. And the same question threading through all of it: what happens when technology moves faster than the institutions built to govern it?
I didn’t plan for that to be the theme. It just kept showing up.
THE FRIDAY REPORTER
Kathryn Mitchell left Capitol Hill to help build the $50 billion CHIPS for America program at the Department of Commerce — from scratch. “Moving to CHIPS was a risk,” she told me, “and it paid off.” Now she’s at DLA Piper, helping clients — some working out of literal garages — navigate the semiconductor ecosystem her old program was built to create. The line that stayed with me: “AI can’t fix the whole challenge we face.” The physical world still has to build the fabs, clear the permits, sign the contracts. The bipartisan CHIPS Act passed under Biden; it’s being implemented under Trump. Two very different approaches. She’s watching Congress closely.
Then Matthew Cutts of Dentons came in and told me something I’ve been chewing on since: Congress is now approaching AI the way it should have approached social media — with collective urgency, because every member remembers getting caught behind. That shared institutional memory is quietly producing unusual bipartisan alignment. He also made the boardroom point plainly: CEOs who used to treat Washington as a nuisance have learned — sometimes painfully — that this administration can move a company’s stock price. Political retaliation isn’t hypothetical anymore. It’s in the risk model.
THE DECIDERS
Tom Emmer became the first sitting member of Congress to join The Deciders. The House Majority Whip describes his job the way a coach would: “It’s the best coaching job I’ve ever been entrusted with. Your job is to put people in a position where they can be successful.” Then he told us about the phrase that changed how he thinks about counting votes: “kamikaze politicians.” Members who used to threaten to fly the plane into the building, he said, “now will fly the plane into the building.” That’s the room he works in every day.
And then there’s Linda Moore. The CEO of TechNet joins Brody and me on The Deciders this Tuesday — and paid subscribers are hearing this first.
Moore’s team is tracking more than 1,000 AI-related bills across 50 states right now. Eight regional executive directors embedded in the state capitals that matter most. A 50-state advocacy program, 25 different issue sets — from hardware and software to drones, fintech, and autonomous vehicles — with an 89% legislative success rate this year. Her warning: “Adoption of AI is lagging here in the U.S. compared to other parts of the world.” Fear and misunderstanding are slowing things down. Her answer isn’t a press release. It’s presence.
Here’s the thread I keep pulling on: four conversations, four vantage points — a semiconductor lawyer, a corporate strategist, a congressional vote-counter, and a 50-state tech advocate — all describing the same collision. Technology is outrunning the institutions designed to govern it. The people doing something about that gap don’t usually make the front page. They’re the ones I’m trying to find.
🎧 The Friday Reporter with Kathryn Mitchell → [link]
🎧 The Friday Reporter with Matthew Cutts → [link]
🎧 The Deciders with Tom Emmer → [link]
🎧 The Deciders with Linda Moore → drops Tuesday, May 19 — paid subscribers get an early link!
You’re receiving this because you subscribed. Forward it to someone in the room where these decisions are being made.