As the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate scrambles to meet a self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass H.R. 1 — President Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" — a group of Republican governors may have just thrown another wrench in the works.
Politico reporter Anthony Adragna reported Friday that 17 Republican governors (who all represent states Trump won in 2024) sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) asking them to take out language in H.R. 1 that bans states from regulating artificial intelligence (AI) for 10 years. The governors began the letter by praising the bill's extension of tax cuts (that are overwhelmingly skewed in favor of the rich) and its cuts to safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps before criticizing the AI provision.
"As Republican governors, we are writing to encourage congressional leadership to strip this provision from the bill before it goes to President Trump's desk for his signature," they wrote.
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The governors pointed to several examples of AI regulation that their states hoped to enact. In Arkansas, Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill into law requiring generative AI — like ChatGPT — to abide by specific copyright guidelines. Arkansas also passed regulations preventing the nonconsensual use of residents' likenesses in AI-generated content. And in Utah, lawmakers crafted regulations requiring disclosure to consumers if they're interacting with AI.
"This provision added by Congress would prohibit these commonsense regulations from going into effect for ten years, instead waiting on some as-yet-unwritten regulations to come from Congress," the letter read. "AI is already deeply entrenched in American industry and society; people will be at risk until basic rules ensuring safety and fairness can go into effect."
"As Republican governors, we support the One, Big, Beautiful Bill and President Trump's vision of American AI dominance, but we cannot support a provision that takes away states' powers to protect our citizens," they added. "Let states function as the laboratories of democracy they were intended to be and allow state leaders to protect our people."
The letter is signed by governors of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and Wyoming. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also railed against the AI provision in a tweet this week, and threatened to vote against it unless it was removed.
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Click here to read the letter in full.