A congressional GOP plan to block states from regulating AI is failing again.
Last month, President Donald Trump renewed his attempt to impose a state-level moratorium on AI regulation, saying post on social network that “we MUST have one federal standard instead of a patchwork of 50 state regulatory regimes.”
But there is little indication that Republican lawmakers will soon unite around including the measure in the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense spending bill that must be passed.
A previous attempt to include a ban on state-level AI regulation fell out of the GOP's so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” after a backlash from hardline conservatives and AI. companies like Anthropic. The Republican-controlled Senate voted overwhelmingly to exclude it from broader tax and spending legislation that ultimately became law on July 4th.
This time the ban did not even clear the lower house as it had before. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that the NDAA “is not the best place to do this.” He added: “We are still looking at other locations because there is still interest.”
The event drew applause from opponents of the measure. “Fine. This is a terrible situation and should be left NO,” said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri. in H's post
Other critics included GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who advocated limiting the federal government's authority over state lawmaking. “States should retain the right to regulate and legislate on AI and everything else for the benefit of their state,” she said. in a November 20 social media post.
The White House remains fully supportive of AI development and could return to a government moratorium in 2026 given Trump's strong interest and AI strengths such as OpenAI – reflected on this topic. Last month, Trump signed an executive order designed to clear the way for labs affiliated with the Energy Department to collaborate with technology companies on using AI to advance medical research.
