Moratorium on state AI regulation clears Senate hurdle

A Republican effort to prevent states from enforcing their own AI regulations cleared a key procedural hurdle on Saturday.

The rule, as reportedly rewritten by Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz in an attempt to comply with budgetary rules, would withhold federal broadband funding from states if they try to enforce AI regulations in the next 10 years.

And the rewrite seems to have passed muster, with the Senate Parliamentarian now ruling that the provision is not subject to the so-called Byrd rule — so it can be included in Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and passed with a simple majority, without potentially getting blocked by a filibuster, and without requiring support from Senate Democrats.

However, it’s not clear how many Republicans will support the moratorium. For example, Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee recently said, “We do not need a moratorium that would prohibit our states from stepping up and protecting citizens in their state.”

And while the House of Representatives already passed a version of the bill that included a moratorium on AI regulation, far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene subbsequently declared that she is “adamantly OPPOSED” the provision as “a violation of state rights” and said it needs to be “stripped out in the Senate.” 

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended the provision by saying it had President Donald Trump’s support and arguing, “We have to be careful not to have 50 different states regulating AI, because it has national security implications, right?”

In a recent report, Americans for Responsible Innovation (an advocacy group for AI regulation), wrote that “the proposal’s broad language could potentially sweep away a wide range of public interest state legislation regulating AI and other algorithmic-based technologies, creating a regulatory vacuum across multiple technology policy domains without offering federal alternatives to replace the eliminated state-level guardrails.”

A number of states do seem to be taking steps toward AI regulation. In California, Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed a high-profile AI safety bill last year while signing a number of less controversial regulations around issues like privacy and deepfakes. In New York, an AI safety bill passed by state lawmakers is awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. And Utah has passed its own regulations around AI transparency.