US Senate strikes AI regulation ban passage from Trump megabill
Lawmakers voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the bill by adopting an amendment offered by Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn. The action came during a marathon session known as a "vote-a-rama," in which lawmakers offered numerous amendments to the legislation that has now passed through the upper chamber of Congress.
The Senate version of Trump's legislation would have only restricted states regulating AI from tapping a new $500 million fund to support AI infrastructure.
The AI clause is part of the wide-ranging tax-cut and spending bill sought by President Donald Trump, which would cut Medicaid healthcare and food assistance programs for the poor and disabled.
Vice President JD Vance cast the tie-breaking vote in the Senate to pass the bill, which now moves back to the House for consideration.
Major AI companies, including Alphabet's Google and OpenAI, have expressed support for Congress taking AI regulation out of the hands of states to free innovation from a panoply of differing requirements.
Blackburn presented her amendment to strike the provision a day after agreeing to compromise language with Senate Commerce Committee chair Ted Cruz that would have cut the ban to five years and allowed states to regulate issues such as protecting artists' voices or child online safety if they did not impose an "undue or disproportionate burden" on AI.
But Blackburn withdrew her support for the compromise before the amendment vote.
"The current language is not acceptable to those who need these protections the most," the Tennessee Republican said in a statement.
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