In a letter sent Monday to House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), House Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) and congressional members, the organizations said the 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation would remove accountability for developing technology.
“This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public,” the letter stated.
Signers of the letter included tech workers, civil society groups, academic institutions and artists.
Among those are Amazon Employees for Climate Justice, progressive consumer rights watchdog nonprofit Public Citizen and Alphabet Workers Union, the labor representatives for workers at Google’s parent company.
The provision, included in President Trump’s “one, big beautiful” bill, would bar states from enforcing laws or regulations governing AI models, systems or automated decision systems.
The House Budget Committee voted to advance the sweeping tax bill Sunday, though the broader bill still needs to face a vote with the full chamber.
The letter’s signatories argue states’ actions on AI so far have attempted to protect residents from “the risks posed by unregulated or inadequately governed AI technologies.”
“We will only reap the benefits of AI if people have a reason to trust it,” the letter wrote.
It comes amid a broader debate over federal preemption for AI regulation, which several AI industry heads have pushed for as state laws create a patchwork of rules to follow.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com
