The Republican-led U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove a 10-year federal moratorium
on state regulation of artificial intelligence from President Trump’s sweeping tax-cut and spending bill.
Lawmakers voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the bill by adopting
an amendment offered by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. T
he action came during a marathon session known as a “vote-a-rama,” i
n which lawmakers o
ffered numerous amendments to the legislation that Republicans eventually hope to pass.
Republican Senator Thom Tillis was the lone lawmaker who voted to retain the ban.
The Senate version of Trump’s legislation would have only restricted
states regulating AI from tapping a new $500 million fund to support AI infrastructure.
Major AI companies, including Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI, have expressed support for Congress taking AI
regulation out of the hands of states to free innovation from a panoply of differing requirements.
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Blackburn presented her amendment to strike the provision a day aft
er agreeing to compromise language with Senate Commerce Com
mittee chair Ted Cruz that would have cut the ban to five ye
ars and allowed states to regulate issues such as protecting artists’ voic
es or child online safety if they did not impose an “undue or disproportionate burden” on AI.
But Blackburn withdrew her support for the compromise before the amendment vote.
“The current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most,” the Tennessee Republican said in a statement.
“Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we can’t block states from making laws that protect their citizens.”