Bill taxes AI companies to help workers hurt by AI.
S. 5518 — Make AI Work for Americans Act · Filed by Mark Kelly (D-AZ) · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill creates a $30 billion fund run by the Department of Labor. The fund gets money from three new taxes on AI companies. One tax is 5% on digital ads. Another is $1.10 per million AI computer units. The third is 50% on extra profits. The fund pays for better unemployment insurance and worker training. An AI Advisory Council decides how to spend the money.
Who it affects
Workers who lose jobs to AI get help with money and training. AI companies pay the new taxes. Community colleges, small businesses, nonprofits, and research groups can get grants.
One thing to notice
An AI Advisory Council decides how to spend $30 billion each year. The council has 5 federal officials and 10 outside experts. Who gets picked matters a lot.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Finance · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- AI Advisory Council — A group of 15 people who decide how the fund gets spent.
- unemployment insurance — Money the government pays to people who lose their jobs.
- Department of Labor — The federal agency that runs job and worker programs.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (50,094 characters) on Oct 6, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
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