Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) named Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) its September 2026 Porker of the Month for introducing legislation that would ban superintelligence and freeze all other American artificial intelligence development until a new federal agency is created to control every aspect of the industry.

Standing up a new cabinet-level agency will take Congress years if not decades to accomplish, leaving innovators waiting indefinitely before development could resume. In the meantime, anyone who attempts to develop superintelligence could face up to 20 years in prison, and companies would be subject to a “corporate death penalty.” Foreign competitors are not pausing their own AI development while Washington delays and deliberates, and a unilateral, open-ended freeze would ensure that the rest of the world leaves America behind.

CAGW President Tom Schatz said, “Sen. Sanders wants to ban the most advanced computers ever built and stop American AI development while Washington creates a new bureaucracy to decide what companies are allowed to build and how. Threatening inventors and engineers with decades in prison will stifle U.S. innovation and hand the future of artificial intelligence to overseas competitors. For pushing legislation that would freeze American innovation, give the government control over what gets built, and cause the U.S. to irretrievably fall behind in a race it cannot afford to lose, Sen. Bernie Sanders is the clear choice for CAGW's September 2026 Porker of the Month.”

Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. For more than two decades, Porker of the Month is a dubious honor given to lawmakers and government officials who have shown a blatant disregard for the taxpayers.

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Sen. Sanders wants to ban the most advanced computers ever built and stop American AI development.