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Members spar over 10-year state moratorium on AI and $500 million Commerce funding in reconciliation language
Summary
Committee members and witnesses debated a provision in reconciliation legislation that would bar states from enforcing AI-specific laws for 10 years while authorizing $500 million for Commerce Department modernization. Witnesses and lawmakers expressed confusion over scope and raised concerns about federalism and contract beneficiaries.
WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on the House Oversight and Reform Committee pressed witnesses and one another on a controversial provision in recently circulated reconciliation language that would restrain state and local regulation of artificial intelligence, and on a related $500 million Commerce Department request that some members said lacked clear detail.
Representative Higgins questioned witnesses about language described as a 10-year moratorium that would prevent states or political subdivisions from enforcing AI-specific laws during that period. Adam Thier and other witnesses described the policy as intended to protect interstate commerce and avoid a patchwork of state rules that could impede federal modernization and national competitiveness.
Thier told the committee the provision is meant to preserve a national framework for AI and to prevent parochial state regulation from fragmenting markets. He said there are exceptions in the text for laws of general applicability and criminal enforcement, and that the proposal…
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