Democratic senators are probing whether or not RealPage, a software program firm accused of colluding with landlords to lift rents, lobbied for a proposed ban on states regulating AI for the following decade. In a letter to RealPage CEO Dana Jones, 5 Democratic senators — Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (D-VT), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Tina Smith (D-MN) — ask for extra details about the corporate’s “potential involvement” in a provision hooked up to Republicans’ finances reconciliation invoice, which bars state legal guidelines that affect AI or “automated choice” techniques for 10 years.
The senators argue that the supply may scuttle makes an attempt to cease RealPage from feeding delicate data from teams of landlords into an algorithm and utilizing it to suggest noncompetitive rental costs.
In 2022, a report from ProPublica linked RealPage to rising lease costs throughout the US, alleging that its algorithm permits landlords to coordinate pricing. The Division of Justice and eight states sued the corporate final yr, claiming it “deprives renters of the advantages of competitors on house leasing phrases.” In the meantime, cities like Minneapolis, Jersey Metropolis, Philadelphia, and San Francisco have handed legal guidelines meant to ban the usage of rent-setting software program, and several other states, together with Connecticut, New York, Massachusetts, and Washington, have laws within the works.
“Republicans try to offer a inexperienced gentle to RealPage’s rent-hiking algorithm.”
Because it stands, the senators argue the Republican finances reconciliation invoice would block pending laws and cease states from implementing any regulation that places limitations on RealPage’s rent-setting algorithm. The invoice proposes stopping states from implementing “any regulation or regulation” protecting a broad vary of automated computing techniques, which might doubtless apply to the algorithms utilized by RealPage.
And whereas the moratorium’s most high-profile proponents are giants like OpenAI, lawmakers imagine RealPage might need spent thousands and thousands pushing for it too. “In gentle of this, we search data on RealPage’s lobbying efforts, and on how the Republicans’ reconciliation provision would assist the underside line of RealPage and different giant firms by permitting them to benefit from shoppers,” the letter states.
The senators say RealPage “stepped up” its Congressional lobbying in response to native laws that might have an effect on its enterprise. They cite a report from The Lever, which discovered that the Nationwide Multifamily Housing Council, a commerce group that represents RealPage, elevated its lobbying spending from $4.8 million in 2020 to $9 million in 2024. The Lever additionally discovered that the commerce group disclosed that it lobbied on “points surrounding the dangers and alternatives posed by synthetic intelligence,” in addition to “federal insurance policies affecting utilization of information, synthetic intelligence, software program,” and different expertise utilized in actual property.
“RealPage ramped up its million greenback spending marketing campaign in Congress and lo and behold, Republicans in Congress handed a provision to dam states from defending renters,” Senator Warren instructed The Verge. “Individuals are being squeezed by rising rents, however as a substitute of serving to, Republicans try to offer a inexperienced gentle to RealPage’s rent-hiking algorithm.”
The Senators have requested RealPage how a lot cash the corporate spent on Congressional lobbying in annually since 2020, in addition to which companies and people it “engaged or contracted with” throughout the identical interval. In addition they need to know the way a lot it spent on lobbying focused towards AI laws, in addition to how RealPage can be impacted by the finances reconciliation invoice in states with pending laws on rent-setting software program. The senators ask RealPage to reply by June tenth, 2025.
If handed, the invoice — presently awaiting consideration within the Senate — may have far wider-ranging impacts than RealPage. Along with blocking states from regulating AI chatbots, it may additionally have an effect on any legal guidelines protecting issues like deepfakes, automated hiring techniques, facial recognition, sentencing algorithms, and extra.
