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Bipartisan Group of State AGs Press Congress to Nix 10-Year Moratorium on AI Laws

By  |  May 27, 2025

That National Association of Attorneys General last week sent a letter to the top majority and minority leadership in the House and Senate urging Congress to drop a provision in the pending tax and spending bill that would bar states from passing or enforcing laws to regulate artificial intelligence and other machine-learning systems. The letter was signed by 49 state attorneys general including both Republicans and Democrats.

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    “We, the undersigned attorneys general (the “State AGs”), write to voice our opposition to the amendment added by the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee to the budget reconciliation bill that imposes a 10-year prohibition on states from enforcing any state law or regulation addressing artificial intelligence (“AI”) and automated decision-making systems,” the letter said. “The impact of such a broad moratorium would be sweeping and wholly destructive of reasonable state efforts to prevent known harms associated with AI.”

    The so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” passed the House by a single vote, with three Republicans joining all Democrats in opposing the legislation. The massive bill – a centerpiece of President Trump’s economic agenda – now faces uncertain prospects in the Senate. Some Republican Senators have objected to deep cuts to Medicaid included in the House version. Others insist the cuts do not go deep enough. All Democrats are again expected to vote against the measure.

    Individual provisions in the House bill, including the AI law moratorium, also face stiff headwinds. The “Big Beautiful Bill” is fashioned as a budget reconciliation measure, meaning it can bypass a Democratic filibuster and go straight to a vote by the full Senate, where the GOP currently holds a three-seat majority. Under Senate rules, however, provisions that do not impact either spending or taxes cannot be included in a reconciliation bill. The Senate parliamentarian could rule that the AI moratorium must be dropped. If passed without it, the bill would have to go back to the House for another vote.

    Read more: Anthropic CEO Claims AI Models Hallucinate Less Than Humans

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    The AI provision has also drawn opposition from at least two Republican senators, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.). Tennessee last year passed the so-called ELVIS Act, which prohibits the unauthorized use of a person’s voice of likeness using AI. Blackburn, who previously represented the country music capital of Nashville in the House, is a strong supporter of the Tennessee law, which could be nullified by the AI moratorium provision.

    “We certainly know that in Tennessee we need those protections,” Blackburn said at a recent Senate hearing on a related measure. “And until we pass something that is federally preemptive, we can’t call for a moratorium.”

    Supporters of the provision, however, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, insist the 10-year “pause” on state laws is essential to prevent a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes that would hold back AI development and investment.

    As passed by the House, the provision declares that “no State or political subdivision thereof may enforce any law or regulation regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems during the 10-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act.”

    Opponents of the measure claim that language is so broad it would prevent enactment or enforcement of a wide range of automated data-processing systems that have nothing to do with generative AI. Analysts estimate that as many as 700 current or pending state laws could be affected by the measure.

    “This bill does not propose any regulatory scheme to replace or supplement the laws enacted or currently under consideration by the states, leaving Americans entirely unprotected from the potential harms of AI,” the state AGs’ letter read. “Moreover, this bill purports to wipe away any state-level frameworks already in place. Imposing a broad moratorium on all state action while Congress fails to act in this area is irresponsible and deprives consumers of reasonable protections.”

    President Trump personally lobbied wavering Republican members of the House to muscle his “One Big Beautiful Bill” over the finish line, and this week began twisting arms in the Senate.