For Now, States Have Right to Regulate AI
Senators Reject 10-Year Ban on State-Level AI Regulation, In Blow to Big Tech
Senators voted … to remove a controversial 10-year moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence from President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” marking a significant defeat for a tech industry that had lobbied hard to keep the provision in the sweeping tax and spending package.
Lawmakers voted 99-1 in an overnight session to remove the provision by adopting an amendment tabled by Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who had earlier broken with her party over the issue.
Companies such as OpenAI and Google had previously argued in support of blocking states from regulating AI — so as to avoid what they said would be a patchwork of rules that could hamper innovation.
But critics on both the left and the right said the AI moratorium, which had earlier been approved by the House, was an attempt to forestall any attempt to regulate new AI systems. Many also noted that Congress has not passed any significant new tech rules in decades — meaning that a ban on state AI regulations might effectively mean no AI regulation at all.
The version rejected by the Senate had earlier been reworded to meet budgetary rules, by making acceptance of funding from a $500 million infrastructure program conditional on accepting the moratorium.
Because most Democrats opposed the moratorium, the Republicans could not afford to lose…