Trump’s AI Comments Alter Outlook for Moratorium, Says Senate Staffer
Congress should be skeptical of an AI moratorium gaining traction in defense funding negotiations, but President Donald Trump’s support for state preemption means Democrats must take the issue seriously, a senior staffer for Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said Wednesday.
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Chief Counsel David Stoopler appeared at the National Conference of State Legislatures Capital Forum, where Republican and Democratic state lawmakers voiced opposition to House Republican plans to revisit the issue (see 2511180054).
In a Truth Social post Tuesday, Trump urged Congress to include a federal AI standard in “the NDAA, or pass a separate Bill.”
“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.”
The prior 99-1 Senate vote blocking the moratorium was a clear signal, but the president weighing in now “move[s] the needle somewhat,” said Hoopler. It’s “notoriously difficult” to pass unrelated policy issues in must-pass spending bills unless there’s broad support, Hoopler said, but he’s not surprised Republicans are circling back, given comments from Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz, R-Texas (see 2507210042).
“There’s lots of reasons to be skeptical about the prospects, but it’s definitely not impossible,” he added.
South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey (R); Montana Sen. Daniel Zolnikov (R); and Virginia Del. Michelle Lopes Maldonado (D) all spoke in opposition to the moratorium during audience questions.
“I get very offended” when Congress tries to preempt state AI regulation, said Guffey, while discussing how he lost his teenage son in a social media-related suicide. “States are tired of waiting on Congress” to protect children, he said. “That’s the reason states are having to move forward.”
Maldonado said she rejects the binary approach that it needs to be all federal or all state regulation. “What I’d love to see is more effort around collaboration,” and identifying areas where the federal government would be better suited to address AI issues, she said.
Stoopler said the federal government is better suited to address certain national security issues. Speaking on the same panel, Americans for Responsible Innovation President Brad Carson, a former U.S. House Democrat from Oklahoma, said the federal government has a unique role in pulling together technical expertise to evaluate areas of AI policy like large language models. Carson noted that both red and blue states are passing AI regulations. Substituting state regulation with “nothing at all” from Congress “makes no sense at all,” he said.
ARI is gathering state lawmakers' signatures for a new letter to Congress opposing efforts to pass a moratorium, added Carson. In June, ARI sent Congress a letter backed by 260 state lawmakers in opposition.