A Bill to Create a Federal AI Workforce Transition Fund
Tax on AI-driven labor displacement funds retraining and wage insurance.
Companies deploying AI systems that replace more than 25 employees annually shall pay a 2% AI workforce transition surcharge on related savings.
Revenue funds retraining grants and 50% wage insurance for displaced workers.
Self-funded by surcharge.
Treasury and DOL joint enforcement.
Mechanical parts, sourced & timed
Use this as your pre-round checklist. Memorize the source citation. Time yourself to the delivery target.
- Bill / Number
- H.R. 1071 — A Bill to Create a Federal AI Workforce Transition Fund
- Funding source
- Self-funded by 2% AI workforce transition surcharge.
- Timeline
- Effective at next Treasury rulemaking.
- Plausible but complex — defining 'AI-driven displacement' is the hard part.
- Enforcing agency
- Treasury + Department of Labor.
- Yes for surcharge collection; novel for DOL displacement-cause determination.
- Penalty for non-compliance
- Standard tax compliance; private right of action under Sec. 4.
- Source citation
- MIT, Acemoglu & Restrepo (2022), 'Tasks, Automation, and the Rise in U.S. Wage Inequality' — economics.mit.edu.
- Delivery time (read aloud)
- 1:10 (70s)
A robot/AI tax slows productivity-enhancing investment — net loss to U.S. GDP.
Acemoglu & Restrepo (MIT 2022) found 50-70% of wage inequality since 1980 traces to automation that displaced labor without creating equivalent new tasks. The 2% surcharge is calibrated to internalize that externality, not to halt deployment. France and South Korea's analogous schemes show no productivity slowdown.