Conservatives are sparring over the One Big Beautiful Bill’s inclusion of a provision that bars states’ ability to regulate artificial intelligence for ten years.
Rep. Marjorie Taylore Greene wrote:
Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there. We have no idea what AI will be capable of in the next 10 years and giving it free rein and tying states hands is potentially dangerous. This needs to be stripped out in the Senate. When the OBBB comes back to the House for approval after Senate changes, I will not vote for it with this in it. We should be reducing federal power and preserving state power. Not the other way around. Especially with rapidly developing AI that even the experts warn they have no idea what it may be capable of. [Emphasis added]
Public officials on the other side of the aisle agreed with the Georgia conservative.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D-CA) press office stated:
Even MTG gets this one right. Stripping states of our ability to regulate AI for 10 years would be disastrous — putting people in harm’s way, needlessly. The current version of the Trump’s ‘Big Ugly Bill’ would END California’s bans on AI-generated child porn, deepfake porn, and AI-generated robocall scams. Read the bill before you vote!
David Sacks, the White House artificial intelligence and crypto czar, fought back against Greene’s opposition to the AI provision, believing that it would stop companies from having to comply with 50 separate AI regulatory regimes:
While I agree with MTG on most issues (especially Ukraine), in this case I believe that a temporary moratorium on state AI regulation is the correct small government position.
The alternative is a patchwork of 50 different regulatory regimes driven by the AI Doomerism that is becoming a dominant strain on the American and European Left. Funded and astroturfed by left-wing Silicon Valley billionaires like Dustin Moscovitz, the constant fear-mongering is intended to scare us into adopting their agenda of Regulatory Capture, WokeAI, and Global AI Governance. They already have regulatory initiatives underway in most Blue states as well as European capitals. (Some Republicans are also falling for their fake “China Hawk” rhetoric, even though AI over-regulation primarily benefits China.)
A federal moratorium on state regulation is justified under the Commerce Clause when inconsistent state laws would substantially burden interstate commerce. That is the case here. [Emphasis added]
“The America First position should be to support a moderate and innovation-friendly regulatory regime at the federal level, which will help rather than hobble the U.S. in winning the AI race,” Sacks added.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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