Kevin Frazier, senior fellow at the Abundance Institute and director of AI innovation and law at the University of Texas School of Law, summarized his testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee on LinkedIn, warning that economic rigidities, not technology, may be one of the biggest barriers to building an AI-enabled U.S. workforce.
Frazier appeared before lawmakers as part of a hearing examining how education, labor policy, and workforce systems must adapt as artificial intelligence reshapes jobs and career paths across the U.S. economy.
In his post, Frazier linked economic dynamism to productivity, emphasizing that worker mobility and business formation are essential to growth, and opened by saying, “A more dynamic economy is a more productive economy.”
He went on to argue that the U.S. labor market currently lacks this dynamism, adding, “That’s not happening right now…Companies are ‘hoarding’ labor, workers are ‘hoarding jobs,’ and economists suspect we are in a ‘Great Freeze.'”
Frazier said this slowdown in the labor movement is in direct contradiction to the pace at which AI is changing the way work is organized and performed.
Decades-old labor laws flagged for inconsistency
Frazier then turned to federal labor policy, highlighting the structural disconnect between modern labor and traditional regulation.
“The Fair Labor Standards Act is based on economic assumptions from the 1930s,” Frazier said. He argued that the strictness of the law is limiting the flexible working arrangements that are increasingly sought after by both employers and workers, especially as AI enables more modular and project-based roles.
He also cited tax policy as another source of friction. “The Internal Revenue Code imposes unnecessary burdens on independent workers during tax season, exposing them to more complex and time-consuming procedures,” Frazier said.
Expanding on the broader context, Frazier explained how AI, robotics, augmented reality, and virtual reality are accelerating the transition to what he calls a “portfolio economy.” “We’re moving into a portfolio economy, where companies are becoming more fractured and jobs are becoming more segmented and fragmented,” Frazier explained. He warned that maintaining the existing legal and policy framework could leave many workers struggling to adapt.
“If we persist with the status quo, many Americans will have a hard time navigating this new reality,” Frazier warned.
Education and civil rights voices join worker debates
Frazier testified alongside leaders from technology, education, and civil rights organizations, including Alexandra Reeve Givens, president and CEO of the Center for Democracy and Technology, Chhaya Nayak of OpenAI, and Adeel Khan, founder and CEO of MagicSchool AI.
In a separate post on LinkedIn, the Center for Democracy and Technology highlighted Reeve Givens’ emphasis on guardrails to protect workers, students, and families as AI reshapes education and employment, highlighting that workforce readiness is not just an economic issue.
Frazier concluded by arguing that without reforms that enable worker mobility and entrepreneurship, investments in AI education and skills development may not achieve their intended effects. “But if we lean toward dynamism, everyone benefits in the long run,” Frazier concluded.
