Senate removes state AI regulation ban opposed by Sen. Maria Cantwell

The United States Senate voted 99-1 early Tuesday morning to remove a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill that would have restricted states from “limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating” artificial intelligence for the next decade.

For weeks, the provision had drawn ire from a bipartisan collection of state and federal lawmakers – including Sen. Maria Cantwell and Washington Attorney General Nick Brown – who argued the ban would restrict states from enforcing an array of state laws, including regulations on deepfake content and a prohibition on the distribution of fabricated sexual images without consent.

Hours before the bill’s final passage Tuesday, the Senate overwhelmingly voted in support of an amendment co-sponsored by Cantwell and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee. Under the Senate proposal, funding from a $42.5 billion broadband program would be contingent on compliance with the moratorium.

“The Senate came together tonight to say that we can’t just run over good state consumer protection laws,” Cantwell said in a statement Tuesday. “States can fight robocalls and 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.”

In recent years, state lawmakers across the country have worked to regulate AI as federal legislation has stalled.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, state lawmakers have introduced more than 1,000 bills to regulate the technology during their 2025 legislative sessions.

During the 2025 session in Olympia, lawmakers introduced at least 22 bills that would have regulated artificial intelligence’s usage in an array of sectors, including scientific research and the rental housing market.

Last month, 260 state legislators signed a letter to federal lawmakers expressing concern with the 10-year freeze, which they said would “cut short democratic discussion of AI policy in the states with a sweeping moratorium that threatens to halt a broad array of laws and restrict policymakers from responding to emerging issues.”

The letter was signed by two Washington legislators – Rep. Shelley Kloba, D-Bothell, and Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick.

The provision also received criticism from the National Association of Attorneys General, members of which wrote in a joint letter that the “impact of such a broad moratorium would be sweeping and wholly destructive of reasonable state efforts to prevent known harms associated with AI.”

On Monday, Blackburn proposed a compromise amendment with Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, which would have prevented states that regulate AI from accessing a new $500 million fund to support AI infrastructure. In a statement Monday, Cantwell said the proposal did “nothing to protect kids or consumers.”

Blackburn later withdrew her support for the amendment.

In a social media post Monday night, Brown thanked Cantwell for “continued leadership to protect the ability of states like Washington to pass responsible regulations protecting kids and consumers.”

According to Brown, the AI provision was opposed by 40 attorneys general, 17 Republican governors and the National Center on Sexual Exploitation’s Law Center, among others.