Two House members from opposite sides of the aisle are betting that America’s AI future won’t be built exclusively inside the campuses of trillion-dollar tech giants. Reps. Russell Fry (R-SC) and Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) are launching the Innovators Caucus, a bipartisan congressional group designed to champion small and medium-sized businesses working in artificial intelligence.
What the caucus actually does
In this case, the Innovators Caucus will focus on the structural disadvantages that smaller AI companies face when competing against deep-pocketed incumbents. Those disadvantages are well-documented: limited access to federal and non-federal funding, difficulty securing early-stage or seed capital, a convoluted R&D tax credit system, fierce competition for technical talent, and a regulatory environment that changes faster than most small firms can adapt to.
Fry brings his membership in the Congressional Robotics Caucus to the table, a group that was relaunched and expanded in 2025 to address the growing overlap between robotics, AI research and development, and workforce policy. Subramanyam contributes a legislative track record on the issue that goes beyond caucus formation.
The legislation behind the launch
