News: House Republican leaders are urging the White House to hold off on an executive order targeting state artificial intelligence laws while lawmakers continue to negotiate a legislative compromise, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
The leadership feels that, if signed, the draft order — which leaked widely on Thursday — will short-circuit that work.
As we scooped, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has been looking to include language preempting state AI laws in the annual defense policy bill, though the effort faces resistance from key lawmakers.
The draft executive order would empower the Justice Department to sue states that have implemented AI regulations while also allowing the administration to withhold coveted broadband funding from these states.
Hill, please. Some Republican lawmakers told us they’d prefer Congress take the lead, arguing legislation is necessary to make preemption legally sound.
“I don’t think the executive branch has the authority to enforce preemption on the states,” Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) said. “If they’ve found some legal angle, I haven’t heard about it.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters he’d “rather do it through the law” than an executive action, which he said would not “give us long-term certainty.”
Over the summer, Tillis was the lone vote to keep an earlier version of AI preemption in the One Big Beautiful Bill.
Meanwhile, Senate Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was conspicuously silent. Cruz, who has been the leading advocate for preemption of state AI laws, declined to respond to multiple reporters’ questions on the potential executive order.
AI politics. The leaked order complicates potential negotiations over federal AI standards.
Any legislation on the topic would almost certainly have to be bipartisan. There is a significant number of Democrats open to preemption so long as it includes a national standard for AI safety and other safeguards. But any White House effort to bypass Congress will make them less willing to strike a deal with congressional Republicans.
The administration is making little effort to address these concerns.
As we scooped, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick told tech industry officials Wednesday night that the administration will act on its own if lawmakers can’t make progress.
Despite reports Trump could sign the order this week, the president seemed likely to hold off for now, according to several people familiar with the process.
