Americans, we need your help to stop a dangerous AI bill from passing the Senate.
What’s going on?
- The House Energy & Commerce Committee included a provision in its reconciliation bill that would ban AI regulation by state and local governments for the next 10 years.
- Several states have led the way in AI regulation while Congress has dragged its heels.
- Stopping state governments from regulating AI might be okay, if we could trust Congress to meaningfully regulate it instead. But we can’t. This provision would destroy state leadership on AI and pass the responsibility to a Congress that has shown little interest in seriously preventing AI danger.
- If this provision passes the Senate, we could see a DECADE of inaction on AI.
- This provision also violates the Byrd Rule, a Senate rule which is meant to prevent non-budget items from being included in the reconciliation bill.
What can I do?
Here are 3 things you can do TODAY, in order of priority:
- (5 minutes) Call and email both of your Senators. Tell them you oppose AI preemption, and ask them to raise a point of order that preempting state AI regulation violates the Byrd Rule.
- Find your Senators here.
- Here’s an example of a call:
“Hello, my name is {YOUR NAME} and I’m a resident of {YOUR STATE}. The newest budget reconciliation bill includes a 10-year ban pre-empting state AI legislation without establishing any federal guardrails. This is extremely concerning to me – leading experts warn us that AI could cause mass harm within the next few years, but this provision would prevent states from protecting their citizens from AI crises for the next decade. It also violates the Byrd Rule, since preempting state AI regulation doesn’t impact federal taxes or spending.
I’d like the Senator to speak out against this provision and raise a point of order that this provision should not be included under the Byrd Rule.”
See here for sample call + email templates.
- (10+ minutes) Call and email Senators on the Budget Committee. This committee is front & center of the budget reconciliation bill – they need to hear from us.
- Find committee members here. Contact as many as you have time for.
- You can contact members even if you’re out-of-state – just tell them you’re a concerned citizen, and you’re reaching out because of their role on the Budget Committee.
- Ask them to call a point of order about the Byrd Rule because this proposed ban is not budget-related.
- See here for sample call + email templates.
- (5 minutes) Call and email Senate leadership with the same message.
- John Thune (Majority Leader): (202) 224-2321; Email Form
- Chuck Schumer (Minority Leader): (202) 224-6542; Email Form
- Lindsey Graham (Budget Committee Chair): (202) 224-5972; Email Form
Mark your calendar to call your Senators every day – don’t let up until this insane provision has been removed.
Together, we can make the world a safer place.
A bit of a tangent in the current context, but I have slight issues with your framing here: mechanisms that prevent the federal government telling the state governments what to do are not necessarily mechanisms that protect individuals citizens, although they could be. But equally, if the federal government is more inclined to protect the rights of individual citizens than the state government is, then they are the opposite. And sometimes framing it in terms of individual rights is just the wrong way to think about it: i.e. if the federal government wants some economic regulation and the state government doesn't, and the regulation has complex costs and benefits that work out well for some citizens and badly for others, then "is it the feds or the state government protecting citizen's rights" might not be a particularly helpful framing.
This isn't just abstract, historically in the South, it was often the feds who wanted to protect Black citizens and the state governments who wanted to avoid this under the banner of state's rights.