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Jim Banks
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Jim Banks

Republican Indiana senator; lead sponsor of the AI Workforce PREPARE Act on AI job impact.

Last refreshed: 14 August 2026

Key Question

A conservative Republican demanding the government track AI job losses; what changed?

Timeline for Jim Banks

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Background

A Republican from Indiana, Banks entered the Senate in January 2025 after serving four terms in the House. He sits on the Armed Services and Banking committees. A Navy Reserve veteran, he is positioned on the conservative wing of the party but has broken with GOP orthodoxy on tech regulation where worker displacement is concerned.

Senator Jim Banks joined a bipartisan Coalition of nine senators demanding the Department of Labour expand its tracking of AI-driven job displacement . The letter to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census Bureau argued that existing surveys cannot distinguish AI displacement from normal labour market churn.

The bipartisan Nature of the data demand, with Banks alongside Democrats Mark Kelly and Mark Warner, signals that AI employment effects are becoming a cross-party concern that resists the usual partisan framing of regulation as anti-business.

Common Questions
Who is Senator Jim Banks?
Republican senator from Indiana since January 2025. A Navy Reserve veteran on the Armed Services and Banking committees who has pushed for AI employment data tracking.Source: editorial
Which senators want better AI jobs data?
A bipartisan group of nine including Banks, Warner, Hawley, Kelly, Hassan, Hickenlooper, Kaine, Rounds and Young wrote to the Department of Labour demanding expanded AI displacement tracking.Source: editorial
What is the AI Workforce PREPARE Act?
A bipartisan bill led by Senators Jim Banks and John Hickenlooper that would ADD AI questions to federal workplace surveys, let the Department of Labor hire AI experts, create an AI Workforce Research Hub, and require employers to disclose AI's role in mass layoffs. Introduced December 2025, still pending with no markup scheduled.Source: https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/senate-bill/3339/text
Did the Senate hold a hearing on AI and jobs in 2026?
Yes. The HELP Committee's Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, chaired by Jim Banks, held 'The Impact of AI on the Workforce' on 29 July 2026 in 430 Dirksen, to build support for the PREPARE Act.Source: https://rollcall.com/2026/07/29/lawmakers-want-better-data-on-ais-workforce-impacts/
Who co-sponsors the AI Workforce PREPARE Act?
Senators John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Jon Husted (R-OH) and Roger Marshall (R-KS), alongside lead sponsor Jim Banks (R-IN).Source: https://rollcall.com/2026/07/29/lawmakers-want-better-data-on-ais-workforce-impacts/