On Saturday, Republicans overcame a significant procedural obstacle in their attempt to stop states from implementing their own AI laws.
According to reports, Senate Commerce Chair Ted Cruz revised the rule to try to meet with budgetary requirements. It would prevent states from receiving federal broadband funding if they attempted to implement AI restrictions during the next ten years.
The Senate Parliamentarian has now decided that the reword is not subject to the so-called Byrd rule, meaning it can be included in Republicans’ “One Big, Beautiful Bill” and passed with a simple majority without needing Senate Democrats’ support or possibly being blocked by a filibuster.
It is unclear, though, how many Republicans will back the moratorium. For instance, “We do not need a moratorium that would restrict our states from stepping up and safeguarding residents in their jurisdiction,” stated Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Republican.
Furthermore, far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene later stated that she is “adamantly OPPOSED” to the provision, calling it “a violation of state rights,” and that it should be “stripped out in the Senate,” even though the House of Representatives had already passed a version of the bill that included a moratorium on AI regulation.
“We have to be careful not to have 50 different states regulating AI, because it has national security ramifications, right?” said House Speaker Mike Johnson, who defended the moratorium by claiming that President Donald Trump supported it.
“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,” stated a recent report by Americans for Responsible Innovation, an advocacy group for AI regulation.
Leave feedback about this