Late on Saturday, the Senate’s rules referee dropped a bombshell by greenlighting a Republican push to slap a 10-year freeze on state and local artificial intelligence laws within their sprawling megabill, as Politico reports.
This decision, which ties the moratorium to federal broadband expansion funds, has split the GOP down the middle while raising eyebrows about federal overreach into state authority.
Let’s rewind to Thursday, when both parties squared off before the parliamentarian to argue their case on this contentious AI provision.
GOP infighting over AI regulation freeze emerges
By late Saturday, the referee sided with the Republicans, allowing the inclusion of a decade-long halt on state and local AI rules in the megabill — a move that’s got some conservatives cheering and others fuming.
Senate Commerce chair Ted Cruz of Texas, a key architect behind this, reworked a House-passed version of the moratorium to fit Senate budgetary guidelines, ensuring it could survive the procedural gauntlet.
Cruz’s rewrite cleverly conditions billions in federal broadband funds on states agreeing to this AI regulatory pause, a carrot-and-stick approach that’s hard to ignore.
Cruz defends moratorium
Speaking on the provision, Cruz didn’t hold back, declaring, “It’s good policy.”
Well, senator, that’s a bold claim when half your party is ready to storm the barricades over it — good policy for whom, exactly?
Meanwhile, Rep. Jay Obernolte of California doubled down in support, warning that without this freeze, we’d face a “labyrinth of regulation” with states pulling in every direction on AI rules.
Conservative pushback gains traction
That labyrinth might sound scary, but several conservative heavyweights aren’t buying the need for a federal sledgehammer to fix it.
Senators such as Josh Hawley of Missouri and Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee have come out swinging against the moratorium, decrying what they see as an overstep that stifles state innovation and autonomy.
Hawley’s even ready to team up with Democrats to strip this language out when the megabill hits the Senate floor — now that’s a plot twist worth watching.
House Freedom Caucus joins fray
Down in the House, the opposition’s just as fierce, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and the Freedom Caucus sounding the alarm over this AI legal freeze.
Greene’s gone so far as to threaten a hard no on the megabill if the moratorium stays put, putting serious pressure on GOP leadership to rethink their strategy.
With such a deep rift in the party, one has to wonder if this AI moratorium will be the hill some conservatives choose to die on — or if a compromise can still be brokered before the final vote.
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Author: Mae Slater
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