White House, Senators Offer Contrasting Plans for AI Development

Along with Trump’s speech, the White House will also issue an executive order Wednesday announcing the development of an AI “action plan” to be ready within 180 days to “sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”

The order will also revoke a previous executive order issued by President Joe Biden establishing various guardrails around the development and use of AI technology.

According to a Reuters report, Trump on Wednesday also plans to unveil a plan calling for the “export of American AI technology abroad and a crackdown on state laws deemed too restrictive to let American AI flourish.” In an echo of the ban on state AI laws that was dropped from the Big Beautiful Bill, the plan will bar federal AI funds from going to states with restrictive AI regulations.

The Hawley-Blumenthal bill, dubbed the AI Accountability and Personal Data Protection Act, comes on the heels of a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which Hawley excoriated AI companies for knowingly using millions of pirated books to train their model, singling out Meta for particular opprobrium.

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 “AI companies are robbing the American people blind while leaving artists, writers, and other creators with zero recourse,” Hawley said in a statement announcing the introduction of the bill. “It’s time for Congress to give the American worker their day in court to protect their personal data and creative works.”

Read more: Comparative Analysis of Transatlantic AI Regulatory Frameworks: Jurisdictional Convergence and Divergence in U.S.-EU Compliance Architectures

The bill provides that any individual whose data is “appropriated, used, collected, processed, sold, or otherwise exploited without the express, prior consent of the individual” can sue the entity that collected it for damages. In cases where consent is given, the bill would require AI companies to disclose any third parties that will have access to data before proceeding.

Notably, the bill explicitly eschews federal pre-emption of existing state laws pertaining to AI. “Nothing in this Act shall be construed to preempt or limit any law, rule, regulation, or common law doctrine of any State that is in effect as of the date of enactment of this Act,” the bills states.

The restrictions the Senate bill would place on AI companies’ use of data, along with the lack of pre-emption of state laws, could put it on a collision course with emerging White House policy. According to the Reuters report, Trump is “laser-focused on removing barriers” to U.S. AI development an international expansion, and rolling back Biden-era policies aimed at “promoting competition, protecting consumers and ensuring AI was not used for misinformation.”

Yet, in a statement on the Senate bill, Sen. Blumenthal said, “Tech companies must be held accountable—and liable legally—when they breach consumer privacy, collecting, monetizing or sharing personal information without express consent. Consumers must be given rights and remedies—and legal tools to make them real—not relying on government enforcement alone.”

With Congress set to go into recess until September, however, the president’s AI agenda will grab the early inside lane on setting the terms of the debate.