Dive Brief:
- More than a dozen Republican governors called on Congress to strike an AI state law moratorium from the One Big Beautiful Bill budget reconciliation proposal.
- “We must curb AI’s worst excesses while also encouraging its growth, which is exactly what states have done through the creation of their own regulatory frameworks,” the group of 17 governors said in a Friday letter sent to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson.
- The missive comes as the bill, which was recently modified to shorten the moratorium to five years from 10, advances through the Senate.
Dive Insight:
Amid a rise in enterprise AI adoption, the federal government continues to hone its approach to regulating the technology.
Opponents of state-based legislation highlight the risks inherent in a patchwork of laws, while supporters argue for the regulatory rights of the states. As AI regulation continues to take shape — in the U.S. and abroad — CIOs should keep a close eye on existing compliance efforts and governance frameworks, experts previously told CIO Dive.
In their letter to Congress, the GOP governors highlighted the wide-ranging implications of the technology for society and the economy.
“That Congress is burying a provision that will strip the right of any state to regulate this technology in any way – without a thoughtful public debate – is the antithesis of what our Founders envisioned,” the governors wrote.
An update to the proposal language, led by Senators Ted Cruz and Marsha Blackburn, shortened the freeze to five years and exempted laws that address children’s online safety, unfair or deceptive acts and the protection of a person’s name and likeness.
Despite the changes, industry watchers remain concerned about the bill’s effect on AI regulation.
“This new language fixes nothing,” said J.B. Branch, Big Tech accountability advocate at consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen, in an emailed statement. “The so-called ‘carve outs’ for child protection and consumer safety are meaningless when a catch-all clause buried in the text bars enforcement of any state law that places an ‘undue’ or ‘disproportionate’ burden on AI systems — effectively undermining every consumer protection law passed at the state level.”
