The Republican-led U.S. Senate has voted overwhelmingly to remove a 10-year federal moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence from President Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill. The vote, which took place during a marathon session known as a ‘vote-a-rama,’ was 99-1 in favor of striking the ban from the bill through an amendment offered by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn.
The sole dissenting vote was cast by Republican Senator Thom Tillis. The original provision in the Senate version of Trump’s legislation would have only restricted states from using a new $500 million fund to support AI infrastructure if they regulated AI.
Major AI companies, including Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI, have expressed support for Congress taking AI regulation out of state hands to free innovation from multiple differing requirements. Blackburn presented her amendment to strike the provision a day after agreeing to compromise language with Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz.
The compromise would have reduced the ban to five years and allowed states to regulate issues such as protecting artists’ voices or child online safety, provided they did not impose an ‘undue or disproportionate burden’ on AI. However, Blackburn withdrew her support for the compromise before the amendment vote, stating that ‘the current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most.’
Blackburn further explained that until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, states should not be blocked from making laws that protect their citizens. The decision reflects the ongoing debate between protecting innovation and ensuring public safety in the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence.
