Tony Samp is a Principal Policy Advisor
who represents clients before the US
Congress and federal agencies. Based in
Washington, DC, he focuses on formulating,
synthesizing and executing complex
business development and risk mitigation
strategies for senior policymakers and
business executives.
Tony is among the foremost advisors in the
US on issues related to national security,
artificial intelligence (AI), space, and
emerging technology.
Washingtonian Magazine named Samp
to their 2024 list of the 500 Most
Influential People in Washington, DC. The
list recognizes experts and advocates
outside of government who "shape the laws
and policies that govern our nation and
ultimately affect the course of history."
In its profile of Samp,
Washingtonian noted he is the
founding director of the Senate's AI
Working Group "helping craft the
legislative and regulatory proposals that
could guide the deployment of artificial
intelligence technologies, which are
rapidly disrupting business and media."
The Hill, a leading Washington
publication, named Tony a "Top Lobbyist,"
commenting of those on its list: "The
ranks of policy experts, influencers and
advocates run deep in Washington, but
these are the people who stand out for
delivering results for their clients in
the halls of Congress and the
administration."
Tony brings 18 years of experience working
with members of Congress, industry, and
the executive branch on emerging
technologies. Earlier in his career, he
served as senior policy advisor to Senator
Martin Heinrich, a member of the Senate
Appropriations Committee, the Senate Armed
Services Committee, the Senate Select
Committee on Intelligence and the Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Tony heads AKD Partners's AI policy
practice in Washington, DC. He was the
founding director of the Senate Artificial
Intelligence Caucus and was Senator
Heinrich's principal author of US$2.2
billion legislation, the Artificial
Intelligence Initiative Act (AI-IA), that
was endorsed by 11 major associations and
institutions to organize a national
strategy for AI and invest in academia,
national laboratories, and industry. The
core provisions of the legislation were
signed into law in January 2021 and remain
a landmark for US policy and federal
funding of AI. He also advised the
15-member National Security Commission on
Artificial Intelligence.
Tony served as the lead advisor to the
Ranking Member of the Strategic Forces
Subcommittee, Senate Armed Services
Committee, overseeing a US$15 billion
budget in military space programs. Over a
12-year period, he secured significant
appropriations to invest in satellite
research and development capabilities and
executed a legislative strategy to
establish the military's leading
responsive space program, which is now a
nearly half-billion-dollar program and
plays a critical role in the Space Force.
Tony was the founding director of the
Congressional Directed Energy Caucus in
the US House of Representatives, helping
to author, negotiate, and enact
legislation on directed energy to create a
US$100 million Directed Energy Weapon
System Program to transition
high-powered-microwave and
high-energy-laser weapons systems to the
military; establish a senior-level
position at the Pentagon for the
technology; and require a strategic
roadmap for fielding the technology.
Tony was appointed an Adjunct Senior
Fellow at the Center for a New American
Security and is currently a Visiting
Fellow at George Mason University's
Antonin Scalia Law School bipartisan
National Security Institute in Washington,
DC.
Tony Samp is not a lawyer.
