CHT Statement in Response to State Moratorium on AI Legislation

Right now, Congress is trying to stop state-level AI laws in the United States – for the next 10 years.

The House Energy and Commerce committee passed a provision this week that proposes a sweeping moratorium — one that would prevent states and local governments from addressing virtually any AI-related issue for the next 10 years — thereby creating a vacuum of accountability at this critical moment in AI development.

The preemption would block states from addressing known AI harms, including those related to child safety, deepfakes, and fraud, while simultaneously preventing lawmakers from responding to emerging issues as this technology continues to transform our society.

In the absence of any other guardrails, this provision would effectively freeze states from providing consumer and business protections when agile governance is most needed.

CHT firmly opposes this moratorium due to its length and broad scope. We strongly urge Congress not to hinder the states’ ability to protect their citizens from harmful AI products while federal standards are being developed.

A 10-year moratorium on state action fundamentally misunderstands the speed at which this technology is being developed and deployed, and the ways our governance institutions need to adapt to meet this moment. Similarly, its overly broad scope fails to prepare for the rapid ways in which this technology will expand across sectors, furthering existing issues and developing new ones. Already, we are seeing new risks and harms emerge as consumer-facing AI products are rolled out onto the market. AI’s powerful frontier capabilities are growing exponentially, all while industries attempt to integrate AI into every corner of our lives. In just the two years since ChatGPT and other genAI products were released to the public, we’ve witnessed the devastating consequences from gaps in the law, as illustrated by tragic cases like Sewell Setzer’s experience with Character.AI.

This is a rapidly evolving situation, and every year counts. The complex ways in which this technology is and will continue to impact our homes, communities, and institutions require solution-making on multiple fronts — that includes at the state-level.

Since 2018, our organization has been leading the charge in identifying how misaligned incentives drive harmful tech design and sounding the alarm on its impacts on society. The last decade of social media alone has demonstrated the societal costs of policy inaction when it comes to emerging technologies. We cannot afford to repeat these mistakes with AI by continuing to wait.

We strongly urge Congress to remove this moratorium and work across the aisle to develop meaningful federal guardrails that encourage innovation. Federal lawmakers’ push for clear, consistent AI regulation reflects their serious commitment to establishing common-sense guardrails, and we look forward to working with Congress on legislation in the near future. In the meantime, preserving states’ ability to address AI concerns serves the public interest as they are well-positioned to nimbly adapt to the rapid speed of AI development. States across the political spectrum have taken concrete steps to thoughtfully protect their citizens from AI's harms while allowing innovation to flourish. Instead of blanket preemption of state AI laws, Congress should take this as an opportunity to learn from these “laboratories of democracy.” This approach supports U.S. innovation while ensuring citizens are adequately and appropriately protected — which Americans deserve.

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