Military must keep humans in charge of killer robots.
H.R. 9729 — Human Authority over Autonomous Weapons Act of 2026 · Filed by Donald Beyer (D-VA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 16, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill says the military must have a human approve every kill decision. For five years, a human must check the target using regular data, not AI. Missile defense systems do not have to follow this rule. The Secretary of Defense must report back in one year.
Who it affects
The military must follow this rule. It makes sure humans make the final call on killing, not machines.
One thing to notice
The bill lets missile defense systems work on their own. These weapons do not need human approval first.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Jul 16, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 16, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Secretary of Defense — the top leader of the U.S. military and the Department of Defense
- missile defense systems — weapons that shoot down incoming missiles or aircraft to protect a place
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,028 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
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