is a senior policy reporter at The Verge, covering the intersection of Silicon Valley and Capitol Hill. She spent 5 years covering tech policy at CNBC, writing about antitrust, privacy, and content moderation reform.
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House Republicans are looking to renew an effort to override state AI laws after a previous version came to a screeching halt earlier this year.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Punchbowl News he’s considering adding language to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) effectively banning state AI regulations. Later on Tuesday, President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social urging Congress to standardize AI regulations. “We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes,” he wrote. “If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race. Put it in the NDAA, or pass a separate Bill, and nobody will ever be able to compete with America.”
Tacking amendments onto the NDAA, which lawmakers consider a must-pass bill, is a common strategy to get legislation across the finish line at the end of the year. It’s not totally clear what the new language would look like considering 99 out of 100 senators ultimately turned against the version of a five-year moratorium on state AI laws that was put to a vote this summer.
When the issue came up earlier this year, many lawmakers expressed concern about the initial 10-year term proposed for the moratorium, and the potential that language could be so broad as to cover a host of other tech regulations, including kids’ online safety laws. Both red and blue states have adopted AI-related laws that could be effectively nullified if Congress were to vote to preempt or pause them.
Proponents of the moratorium, including tech industry associations like NetChoice, argued that a complicated patchwork of state regulations for an early-stage industry like AI could hamper innovation and threaten US competitiveness with China.
More details on the NDAA’s language are expected before the Thanksgiving holiday, with a vote on track for December, according to Politico.