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WASHINGTON, D.C. –  The State of Washington’s Democratic Attorney General Nick Brown and Tennessee’s Republican Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti underscored the harmful impacts to Americans across the country if Congress enacts a controversial provision in the House and Senate budget reconciliation bills imposing a sweeping 10-year moratorium on States’ enforcement of laws “limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating” artificial intelligence (AI). The attorneys generals spoke during a virtual press conference today with Sens. Maria Cantwell, Ranking Member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a senior member of the Committee, who have worked together on federal AI and privacy protection legislation and vehemently oppose the moratorium.

“AI is such a more powerful and potentially influential technology than social media, and it is a great thing,” said Attorney General Skrmetti. “We want America to be AI dominant. We want to make sure that our adversaries don't get ahead of us, but we need to make sure that in the process, we're not leaving American consumers behind. And if there's a 10-year moratorium on state enforcement, that effectively means 10 years where we are at the mercy of the judgment of big tech, and we have no guarantees that they will be responsible with the incredible power this would give them. Our nation is built on checks and balances, and we have to be sure that the states are in a position to fulfill their mandate of protecting their citizens.”

“…[W] have so much opportunity at a state level to move forward and innovate and have new ways to protect our kids and all of our residents, but we want to make sure that we have the ability to do that, and this piece of legislation that's being contemplated in Congress right now would not give us that ability,” said Attorney General Brown. “That's why it's really important that we raise alarm about this issue, and I'm really, again, pleased to see so much bipartisan engagement on this particular matter.”

“I'm concerned because in Congress, those who wish to stop us from having these important laws on the books are using the reconciliation process, which isn't really meant to carry public policy,” said Sen. Cantwell. “They're trying to prohibit policy that is already on the books. This either in the form of prohibiting states from enacting or enforcing AI laws or regulations or a regulation of language that says temporarily pause those laws that are now on the books related to AI, neither one of those are acceptable to me. We should be fighting to protect consumers, not enabling AI theft or fraud to happen.”

“… [W]e are working to move forward with legislation at the federal level, but we do not need a moratorium that would prohibit our states from stepping up and protecting citizens in their state,” said Sen. Blackburn. “Now, the ELVIS Act really is groundbreaking work and it would put power back in the hands of all of these artists and singers and songwriters and musicians and authors, and it would give them a way to crack down on unlawful use of their name, their image, their likeness and their voice. And as we know, for the creative community, that is indeed their stock and trade. And you can't just say we're not going to regulate or enforce state laws for a period of 10 years, because think of what would happen to individuals in that period of time.”

States across the country, including Washington and Tennessee, have passed their own laws to protect citizens from known AI threats, because federal protections don’t exist yet. After the House passed a 10-year AI moratorium in the fast-tracked budget reconciliation bill, Attorneys General from 40 states wrote House and Senate leaders to express their deep concerns about the provision’s destructive impact on hundreds of existing and pending laws passed and being considered by both Republican and Democratic state legislatures. These laws protect Americans against AI-generated explicit material, prohibit deep-fakes, protect renters from being gouged by AI generated housing costs, prevent spam phone calls and texts and require basic disclosures when consumers are interacting with specific kinds of AI.

The Senate budget reconciliation bill would not only impose a 10-year AI moratorium, it would also condition funding for the broadband investment and deployment program (BEAD) on States’ compliance with the 10-year moratorium.

The enforcement moratorium expressly preempts states from enforcing their laws but would not preempt states from passing laws. However, given this moratorium, it is unlikely that states would adopt new AI laws if they could not enforce them. The provision would preempt enforcement of numerous enacted and proposed state laws including:

• Laws that directly regulate the development and deployment of AI systems.
• Provisions of privacy laws addressing automated decision-making.
• Laws that afford civil remedies for AI-generated sexually explicit material.
• Civil laws regulating the use of deepfakes or AI-generated content in political ads.
• Laws governing state procurement or use of AI within state government.
• Possibly preempt digital replica laws protecting performing artists from AI copies.

For additional information on the AI moratorium and its impacts on laws across the country, click HERE.

Organizations and individuals in opposition to the 10-year AI moratorium include:  AFLCIO, American Association for Justice, American Economic Liberties Project, Americans for Responsible Innovation, CAP, California Privacy Protection Agency, Center For Democracy & Technology, Civil Society (140 organizations), International Longshore and Warehouse Union, National Association of Attorneys General, NCSL, National Association of Insurance Commissioners, North American Securities Administrators Association, 260 State Lawmakers , and State lawmakers from MD, VA, CO, CT, MN, NY, VT

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