A coalition of Republicans has succeeded in axing a legislative provision that would have barred states from regulating artificial intelligence. The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), an annual bill that must be passed, was approved by the Senate on Tuesday, after Republicans split on the AI provision. President Donald Trump had called for keeping the provision in the bill, saying in a Truth Social post that “overregulation by the States is threatening to undermine this Major Growth ‘Engine.’ Some States are even trying to embed DEI ideology into AI models, producing ‘Woke AI’ (Remember Black George Washington?).” He added, “We MUST have one Federal Standard instead of a patchwork of 50 State Regulatory Regimes. If we don’t, then China will easily catch us in the AI race.” A similar provision had been removed from the president’s signature Big Beautiful Bill earlier this year.

When the provision appeared in the NDAA, it faced backlash from the GOP’s more conservative wing. Governors Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) and Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-Ark.) opposed the measure, as did some congressional Republicans. “There should not be a moratorium on states rights for AI. States must retain the right to regulate and make laws on AI and anything else for the benefit of their state. Federalism must be preserved,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) insisted. Over 200 state legislators sent a letter to their congressional counterparts at the federal level warning against the provision. “We write to convey our strong opposition to the inclusion of any preemption language in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would curtail ongoing state efforts to address the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI),” the state lawmakers wrote. “States serve as laboratories of democracy, directly accountable to their residents, and must retain the flexibility to confront new digital challenges as they arise. State experimentation and varied approaches to AI governance help build a stronger national foundation for sound policymaking. And as AI evolves rapidly, state and local governments may be better positioned than Congress or federal agencies to respond in real time.”

“Why is it a bad idea?” Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) asked of the AI provision in an appearance on “Washington Watch” Wednesday night. “Because it would prevent states or municipalities from that matter from doing things like regulating and stopping deepfake porn. It would stop states from protecting children online. It would prevent states from protecting kids’ images from protecting children’s communications,” he explained. “It would basically say no regulation that touches AI can remain in force in the states.”

“I’m sure that there’s some crazy regulation out there that’s not a great idea in some of these states,” the senator continued, addressing concerns that regulations in states like California will stifle innovation and allow foreign entities to take the lead over the U.S. on A.I. “Of course, that’s why we have federalism and believe in the laboratory of the states,” Hawley added. “But there’s a lot of great protections for kids from pornography, from the porn industry as a whole, from the exploitation of child traffickers online. We want them to be protected, and I want to see those regulations and those protections stand.”

“Who is the one who is taking the lead in preventing cell phones, for example, from being used in deep deepfake porn in schools? It’s the states. Who is protecting parents and their right to say, ‘I don’t want my kid tracked online?’ It’s the states. Who’s going after child traffickers online? It’s the states,” Hawley enumerated. “By the way, this is mostly red states. We’re talking about Republican states with Republican majorities, great Republican governors who are saying we are going to stand up to the child pornographers, we are going to stand up to the child traffickers, we’re going to protect families,” the senator continued. “Why would we want to cut their legs out from under them? We should be supporting them and cheering them on.”

Some Republicans, however, may still try to implement the AI regulation moratorium in other legislation. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) shared that GOP leaders are “looking at other places” to include the provision after its failure to be pushed through in either the Big Beautiful Bill or the NDAA. “We need to find a place to do it,” Scalise said Tuesday, admitting that the NDAA “wasn’t the best place for this to fit.”

“But we’re still looking at other places,” he said, noting the “interest” in passing such a moratorium. Much of that “interest,” Hawley alleged, is “being driven by big tech and Silicon Valley. But of course, spending money in Washington, D.C. to try to make sure that there’s no restrictions on anything that they want to do.” He continued, “I think Big Tech is absolutely adamant about this. They’re willing to spend any amount of money on it. I would absolutely anticipate that there will be further efforts to try and stop the states from protecting children, from empowering parents.”