One of the most promising pro-innovation policies in years was quietly stripped from the recently passed reconciliation package—and the consequences could be profound.
A provision that would have blocked state-level regulation of artificial intelligence for the next decade, while offering states $500 million in broadband incentives to defer to federal leadership on AI, was removed in final negotiations. Congress should bring it back as soon as lawmakers return from summer recess. No other proposal would do more to safeguard American leadership in artificial intelligence.
The stakes are clear. In 2024 alone, all 50 states introduced AI-related bills, and over 75 of those measures have already become law. The result is a rapidly forming patchwork of conflicting and often duplicative rules that threaten to smother innovation just as AI is starting to reshape core sectors of the U.S. economy, from life sciences to logistics.
