Landslide vote of 99 to 1 removes moratorium from budget bill
Early Tuesday morning, the Senate voted to pass an amendment removing a proposed 10-year AI moratorium from the budget and reconciliation bill. The proposed ban on state AI laws faced widespread opposition from state governors, state attorneys general, children’s online safety groups, and from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress and state legislatures. The amendment to strike the moratorium from the budget and reconciliation bill passed by a vote of 99 to 1.
“The moratorium threatened to halt kids online safety laws, artist and creator protections, and a range of consumer safeguards and tech transparency measures, all without any federal replacement” said ARI President Brad Carson. “That’s one of the reasons this idea tanked. It threatened to strike so many laws important to voters that it mobilized policymakers, advocates, and people from across the country against the moratorium. Let this be a lesson to Congress — freezing state AI laws without a serious replacement is a political nonstarter.”
Amendment votes continue in the Senate, which has not yet moved to final passage of the budget and reconciliation bill.
During debate over the moratorium, ARI helped to organize a coalition of over 130 advocacy groups and another of 260 state legislators in opposition to the federal AI moratorium. ARI also helped to gather over 25,000 voter petitions urging Congress to reject the measure. Last Thursday, ARI organized a press conference featuring Republican state lawmakers from across the country speaking out against the moratorium.
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Americans for Responsible Innovation (ARI) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to policy advocacy in the public interest, focused on emerging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI). Learn more at www.ari.us.