MoCo doesn’t have to be buried in history as a cautionary tale.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front):

Montgomery County’s Economic Development Fund (EDF) is working—creating thousands of jobs, supporting small businesses, and attracting innovation-driven companies. But if we want to restore full confidence in the county’s economy and lead Maryland in business growth, we need to double down on what's working and take bold new actions—including cutting red tape, incentivizing tech startups, bringing back high-tech manufacturing, and helping small businesses afford warehouse space.

While much of the political conversation in Maryland focuses on taxes and spending, Montgomery County has been quietly—and effectively—investing in real economic growth. The latest official report on the Economic Development Fund (EDF) shows how targeted investments are paying off, helping small businesses grow, supporting good jobs, and attracting innovative companies to the area.

Here’s what you need to know—and why it matters for every resident and business in Montgomery County:

Montgomery County’s Economic Development Wins (So Far)

1. Retaining and creating thousands of local jobs

Over 2,400 jobs retained and created in FY2025 alone through grants and loans to major employers like Sodexo and Federal Realty.
A $1.3 million investment helped retain a federal lease at 5600 Fishers Lane in Rockville, preserving 2,000 high-quality jobs that could have been lost.

2. Filling empty offices and reviving urban business centers

Through MOVE (Make Office Vacancy Extinct), 43 businesses have been supported to move into or expand within Montgomery County—injecting life into empty office spaces.
Average award: $26,000 — Average leased space: 3,625 sq. ft. — Over $1.5 million invested to date.

3. Supporting small businesses in disadvantaged communities

Microloans, ranging from $500 to $15,000, help residents from disadvantaged areas like Silver Spring, Aspen Hill, and East County launch and grow small businesses.
According to the Office of Legislative Oversight, these loans reach minority, immigrant, and women entrepreneurs who often lack access to traditional bank loans.
Purple Line Small Business Impact Grants are providing $1,800/month to 40 businesses affected by construction, helping them survive and thrive.

4. Investing in biotech, innovation, and the future economy

SBIR Matching Grants are helping biotech and life sciences startups turn cutting-edge research into products, with $140,000 disbursed so far this year.
The Biotechnology Investor Incentive Program (BIIP) drives private investment in Montgomery County’s fast-growing biotech industry.
The JOBS Initiative, a $20 million fund, rewards companies for creating high-paying, permanent jobs, focusing on emerging sectors like cybersecurity, AI, and health technology.

What More Can Montgomery County Do?

To keep up this momentum—and restore full confidence in the economy—Montgomery County should build on these successes with four bold next steps:

1. Guarantee fast-track permitting for small businesses and construction

A "30-day permit guarantee" for small businesses would cut red tape and make Montgomery County one of the most business-friendly places in Maryland.
Entrepreneurs need speed, not bureaucracy to succeed.

2. Create a "Tech and Innovation Tax Credit" for AI, biotech, and cybersecurity startups

Compete with Northern Virginia and DC for next-gen companies and high-paying jobs.
Targeted tax incentives for companies creating six-figure salaries and cutting-edge solutions will keep talent and growth here.

3. Launch a "Manufacturing Montgomery" initiative for high-tech industries

Attract clean, high-tech manufacturing in semiconductors, batteries, and medical devices.
Use federal CHIPS Act and other incentives to make Montgomery County a hub for advanced manufacturing and good union jobs.

4. Establish a "Warehouse and Logistics Support Fund" for small businesses

Subsidize warehouse, storage, and light industrial space costs for small and growing businesses—especially e-commerce, distribution, and food-based startups.
As real estate prices rise, many small businesses can’t afford critical storage and fulfillment space—limiting their growth.
A warehouse fund would unlock local entrepreneurship, especially for minority-owned and immigrant-led businesses that are ready to scale but face cost barriers.

Final Takeaway: Montgomery County y Doesn’t Have to Slide into Interminable Decline

For several years now, MoCo Insiders with any sense have been accepting the reality that perhaps the county is inhabiting the worst possible timeline for itself. But it doesn’t have to be this way. The county can and should maintain a strong and vibrant commitment to pluralism, pro-labor stances, and social welfare. But it can also have a sophisticated approach to economic development and invigorating small and medium enterprises to play a vital role in our economy.

Montgomery County’s Economic Development Fund is working—helping businesses, creating jobs, and keeping innovation local. But to stay competitive and truly become Maryland's economic engine, we need to double down on what works and think even bigger.

By supporting small businesses with warehouse subsidies, fast permits, tech incentives, and modern manufacturing investments, Montgomery County can be the place where businesses choose to stay, grow, and hire local.

BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front)

Autonomous AI "killer robots" are an imminent threat to global security and human life. The U.S. must act now to lead a global treaty effort that prevents AI from deciding who lives or dies on the battlefield. Failure to act will hand the future of warfare to adversaries like China and Russia.

Key Takeaways:

AI Killer Robots are real and coming fast — Russia, China, and even non-state actors (war profiteers and terrorists) are developing or deploying autonomous war systems now.
Moral and legal frameworks already exist — Drawing on centuries-old natural law principles from St. Thomas Aquinas and Hugo Grotius, humanity has a duty to protect innocent life and uphold justice.
International law is failing to keep pace — The UN and current treaties have not produced effective rules to govern AI in warfare, leaving a dangerous gap.
America must lead — As a global superpower, the U.S. has both a strategic and moral obligation to prevent AI from waging war without human control.
Concrete actions are possible — A global treaty, U.S. moratorium, coalition of democracies, trade and defense conditionality, and public education can set enforceable limits on AWS.

Bottom Line: AI-powered killer robots are a "point of no return" technology. Without immediate U.S. leadership on an international treaty, the world will face unaccountable, autonomous warfare—and America will lose the moral and strategic high ground.

Scenario: How A Killer AI Robot Begins WW3

It is 10:30 in the evening in a rural town in Oregon’s interior. A young girl awakes to a curious sound outside. Her parents remain sound asleep. Raised in the open spaces of Cascadia, the little girl is used to checking on happenings in and around the homestead on her own. Her parents have raised her to be independent and self-reliant. She goes downstairs to the front door to investigate. Curiosity is an American virtue. Her parents realized that a certain American president was making the world a far more dangerous place simply by opening his mouth, and moved out to the rural Northwest in hopes of enjoying the wet greenery and woods in peace for as long as possible.

Armed with a .50 caliber weapon, and a damaged logic system, the Killer Robot is part of a foreign-led asymmetrical warfare effort designed to rattle the American public into opposing their Queens-born chief executive, whose foolish rhetoric has inadvertently put the world on alert for a World War III scenario. U.S. Diplomats and America’s first Latino Secretary of State are scrambling to contain the damage of a deliberately inflammatory speech at the UN by the president, with the New York native now sheepishly agreeing perhaps he needs to calm down his rhetoric a little. The US has withdrawn from NATO, and the remaining members are threatening to invoke Article 5 if the U.S. carries out a threat to invade Canada.

The little girl opens the front door slowly, and is confronted with a malfunctioning, foreign-made automated weapons system (AWS) - a.k.a. a KILLER AI Robot. The child does not survive the encounter with the Killer AI. Her parents are devastated, and the traumatized first-responders who arrived at the scene after the Killer AI mistook the girl for an armed combatant carry her to her final resting place at the closed-casket funeral.

Despite assurances from NATO, China, Iran, Pakistan and Russia that the weapon is not theirs, the United States Congress convenes, and for the first time in over 80 years, formally declares war. Nuclear weapons are in play. Somewhere else in the world, a wealthy investor pours themselves a glass of champagne as the news of potential Armageddon is read out on live television.

Introduction

The above scenario is fictional thankfully today, but it won’t be be for much longer.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered autonomous weapon systems (AWS), or "killer robots," are no longer science fiction. From Russia's AI arms race to Israel's battlefield algorithms, these systems are poised to fundamentally disrupt warfare and global security. Without swift international action—anchored in our oldest legal and moral traditions—the world risks plunging into an AI-driven era of unchecked, automated killing. The United States, as the world’s leading superpower, has both the strategic imperative and moral duty to lead the creation of an international treaty governing AWS. Failure to act will cede this critical field to adversaries like China and Russia, endangering global stability and American lives.

Why AI Killer Robots Demand Urgent Action

Autonomous war systems are evolving at breakneck speed. Russia's Vladimir Putin openly declared that AI leadership will determine global dominance, stating the leader in AI "will rule the world." China is spending $150 billion on AI development, and Saudi Arabia has committed $40 billion—nearly a quarter of its budget—to similar pursuits. Non-state actors, including Hezbollah, are already deploying AI drones for reconnaissance.

Even American tech leaders like Google's former CEO, Eric Schmidt, are terrified of AI-driven warfare and terrorism in the near term. Yet, while militaries rush ahead, there is no global agreement on how—or whether—to regulate these machines of war. The Group of Governmental Experts under the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) has repeatedly failed to reach consensus, leaving the world exposed to the dangerous, imminent arrival of AWS.

Natural Law: A Time-Tested Framework for Modern Threats

Though AI is new, the moral and legal principles needed to regulate it are not. The centuries-old tradition of natural law—shaped by thinkers like St. Thomas Aquinas and Hugo Grotius—provides a clear guide. Natural law holds that protecting innocent life and advancing the common good are universal duties. It insists on justice, dignity, and accountability—principles dangerously absent from AI warfare.

Aquinas writes, "whatever is a means of preserving human life, and of warding off its obstacles, belongs to the natural law." AI, when allowed to autonomously decide life or death, directly violates this principle—especially when its mistakes could wipe out entire populations. In Gaza, for instance, AI-assisted targeting has already reportedly contributed to civilian deaths, proving that even advanced algorithms cannot replicate human judgment in war.

Grotius emphasized that nations must "cooperate in what tends to the common advantage." In an age where AI-driven wars could annihilate humanity, cooperating to regulate these weapons is not optional—it’s an existential necessity. Just as natural law guided treaties banning chemical and biological weapons, it can and should guide the fight against AWS.

What’s the Danger? Real Risks of Killer AI Robots

The public often imagines AWS as distant, futuristic threats—but AI killer robots are closer than we think. Experts quoted in Bloomberg News estimate operational killer AI robots may hit battlefields within the next decade. Should adversaries or terrorists acquire these systems, the consequences could be catastrophic: automated drone swarms attacking civilian cities, AI-driven assassination bots, and untraceable AI warfare that leaves no one accountable.

Current Legal Vacuum and Strategic Vulnerability

Existing international law provides little effective guidance. The UN’s Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons (CCW) has repeatedly struggled and failed to develop enforceable guidelines or amendments addressing AWS, resulting in an ambiguous and dangerously unregulated landscape. Absent clear international standards, state and non-state actors race to deploy autonomous systems, dramatically increasing the likelihood of accidental or deliberate mass civilian harm.

Historically, international agreements—rooted in natural law principles—have effectively curtailed similarly destabilizing technologies, such as chemical and biological weapons. These successes illustrate that ethical frameworks can and should guide international action, provided they receive unequivocal leadership and enforcement from leading global powers.

Policy Recommendations: American Leadership is Essential

The United States, as the preeminent global superpower, must spearhead the development and ratification of a binding international treaty governing AWS. Immediate, practical steps include:

1. Convening a Global Summit on AWS:

Lead global negotiations—modeled after the successful Chemical Weapons Convention—to establish clear prohibitions and standards, including mandatory human oversight for all AI-enhanced lethal systems.

2. Enacting a National Moratorium on AWS Development:

Establish a temporary U.S. moratorium on AWS development and deployment, signaling America’s moral leadership and preventing an uncontrollable arms race.

3. Building an International AI Ethics Coalition:

Coordinate a global coalition of democratic nations committed to ethical standards for AI warfare, exerting diplomatic and economic pressure to secure global compliance.

4. Leveraging Defense and Trade Agreements:

Condition U.S. defense pacts and technology-sharing agreements on strict adherence to AWS guidelines, providing powerful incentives for allies and partners to reject autonomous killing machines.

5. Initiating Public Diplomacy and Education Efforts:

Launch robust advocacy and educational campaigns, similar to the “Campaign to Stop Killer Robots,” to mobilize public support for global regulation and increase political pressure on reluctant nations.

A Call to Action: Why U.S. Leadership Matters

Some realists argue that America should keep all options open and avoid limiting its military arsenal. But allowing AI to make life-or-death decisions without human oversight risks strategic chaos, accidental wars, and devastating civilian casualties. Even from a cold, realist standpoint, rules are better than anarchy, and a treaty with enforcement teeth is the best way to prevent an AI arms race that no one can win.

From a moral perspective, America’s Christian-majority Senate—58 Protestants and 20 Roman Catholics—should resonate with Aquinas’s teaching: the killing of innocents is forbidden by divine and natural law. Allowing AWS to operate without human judgment opens the door to precisely this unacceptable outcome.

Conclusion: Our Choice—Leadership or Catastrophe

The stakes could not be higher. Humanity stands at the precipice of a potentially irreversible technological catastrophe. Natural law provides both the ethical justification and the strategic rationale for action. The choice is stark: America can lead, ensuring an accountable, regulated, and humane future—or it can watch passively as adversaries define the battlefield with catastrophic consequences.

In a world teetering on the brink of AI-induced conflict, the U.S. must urgently champion a treaty that reasserts humanity’s control over war. Doing so will not only reinforce America’s global leadership but fulfill its deepest ethical obligations. The alternative—a world governed by rogue algorithms—is simply unacceptable.

History will judge America’s response. Let it record that the United States chose humanity, accountability, and justice over unregulated killing machines.

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