Overview

• Senators Marsha Blackburn and Maria Cantwell secured the amendment during an overnight vote-a-rama, with only Senator Thom Tillis opposing the measure
• Blackburn had reached a deal with Senator Ted Cruz to reduce the ban from ten to five years with carve-outs for child online safety and artists’ likeness rights before withdrawing support
• Under the original proposal, states enforcing their own AI rules would have been barred from accessing a $500 million AI infrastructure fund
• Existing state laws on issues such as deepfakes, algorithmic bias and intellectual property protections will remain in force without federal preemption
• The moratorium’s defeat leaves Congress without a unified AI framework, maintaining a patchwork of state regulations