This is why I belong to the Authors Guild in a nutshell: They go to D.C. so I don’t have to.
From the AG newsletter:
Authors Go to Washington: The Authors Guild Takes the AI Copyright Fight to Capitol Hill
June 2, 2026
Excerpts:
On May 20 and 21, Authors Guild legal staff and board members went to Washington, D.C., to remind members of Congress of the importance of free speech and make the case that artificial intelligence must not be built on the unconsented, uncompensated work of writers.
The delegation included bestselling author and Guild member David Baldacci, a plaintiff in the Authors Guild’s class action against OpenAI; Authors Guild CEO Mary Rasenberger; Director of Advocacy and Policy Umair Kazi; Chief Legal Officer Kevin Amer; Authors Guild President and author W. Ralph Eubanks; and Authors Guild Foundation Board and Guild Council Members Laura Pedersen, Adriana Trigiani, and Charles Graeber, one of the three named plaintiffs in the author class-action lawsuit against Anthropic that resulted in a $1.5 billion settlement, the largest copyright settlement in history.
Over two days, the delegation completed twelve meetings across both chambers of Congress, engaging an equal number of senators and representatives from eleven states (CA, DE, GA, HI, MD, MO, NC, OR, SC, TN, WI) as well as key legislative staff. The reach was genuinely bipartisan: eight Democrats and four Republicans, spanning the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, with direct engagement with members of the Senate Intellectual Property Subcommittee, the committee with the most direct jurisdiction over copyright and AI legislation.
The meetings included Sens. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Chris Coons (D-DE), Mazie Hirono (D-HI), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and Josh Hawley (R-MO), and Reps. Hank Johnson (D-GA), Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), Valerie Foushee (D-NC), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Jamie Raskin (D-MD), and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR).
This lobbying effort is part of the Authors Guild’s broader and ongoing advocacy around AI and copyright. The Guild has filed suit against OpenAI on behalf of a class of authors whose books were used to train its models without permission. The Guild also helped advise the lawyers and assisted writers in filing claims for the Anthropic settlement and introduced the world’s first Human Authored certification program.
The Guild will continue pushing for legislation that protects authors’ rights, compensates creators fairly, and ensures that the AI revolution does not come at the expense of the people whose writing made it possible.
This is important stuff for writers, and the Authors Guild is the biggest bang for your buck in advocacy and defense of your rights.