Senate Scraps 10-Year Block on State AI Laws

The US Senate has voted nearly unanimously to scrap a 10-year ban that stopped states from enforcing their own rules on AI, removing a restriction that was part of President Trump’s major tax and spending plan.

Lawmakers voted 99 to 1 in favor of removing the ban, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis casting the sole vote against the measure.

The provision in the Senate bill would have effectively blocked states from enforcing a wide range of existing and proposed AI-related laws, including those targeting sexually explicit and political deepfakes, for the next decade. This means states can now move forward with their own AI laws.

Some technology leaders have supported the idea of a single, unified federal approach to AI regulation, rather than a fragmented system of state-level rules.

However, the proposed moratorium prompted concern among other figures in the tech industry, as well as academics, advocacy groups, state officials and lawmakers.

Critics argued that the measure could undermine efforts to hold technology companies accountable for potential societal harms, especially as there is currently no comprehensive federal AI legislation.

In response to the Senate’s decision, major AI firms, including Alphabet’s Google and OpenAI major expressed support for Congress taking AI regulation out of the hands of states to free innovation from conflicting requirements from individual states.

The decision to remove the ban came during the Senate’s lengthy “vote-a-rama” session, in which lawmakers proposed a wide range of amendments to the legislation.