WASHINGTON, D.C. – Tonight, the U.S. Senate voted 99-1 in favor of an amendment co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, and Senator Marsha Blackburn (R–Tenn.) to strip a ten-year moratorium on state AI regulations from the Republican budget reconciliation bill.  

“The Senate came together tonight to say that we can't just run over good state consumer protection laws,” Sen. Cantwell said. “States can fight robocalls, deepfakes and provide safe autonomous vehicle laws. This also allows us to work together nationally to provide a new federal framework on Artificial Intelligence that accelerates U.S. leadership in AI while still protecting consumers.”  

For weeks, Sen. Cantwell raised alarms over the provision which would have forced states to make an impossible choice between enforcing AI consumer protections or accepting federal BEAD funding to expand broadband access. Despite several revisions by its author and misleading assurances about its true impact, state officials from across the country, including 17 Republican Governors and 40 state Attorneys General, as well conservative and liberal organizations – from the Heritage Foundation to the Center for American Progress – rallied against the harmful proposal.

On June 6, after Commerce Secretary Lutnick released “new guidance” on the BEAD program delaying state broadband deployment, Cantwell called the move a “one-two punch” when combined with the AI moratorium. On June 11, Sen. Cantwell led a letter with Democratic members of the Committee calling for a markup of the budget reconciliation Commerce title. On June 18, the Senator held a virtual roundtable with Sen. Blackburn and the Attorneys General of Washington and Tennessee to discuss how the 10-year AI moratorium would leave consumers vulnerable to AI-powered harms.

On June 25, Sen. Cantwell criticized new reconciliation bill language released that continued to hold $42 billion in BEAD funding hostage unless states agreed to forgo enforcement of AI laws. On June 27 and June 28, Sen. Cantwell’s office released statements and letters signed by hundreds of organizations and elected officials expressing their opposition to the AI moratorium. On June 29, Sen. Cantwell took to the Senate Floor to underscore the dangers of the Republican budget reconciliation, including the moratorium. On June 30, she introduced an amendment with Sen. Edward Markey to strip the entire provision prior to introducing the same amendment with Sen. Blackburn.

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