The White House directed Congress to preempt "burdensome" state laws on artificial intelligence in a legislative framework released Friday.
The White House expressed support for letting the courts decide whether using copyrighted material to train AI models violates copyright law and directed Congress not to interfere with this. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump has been calling for months to rein in the patchwork of state laws on AI that he says made it harder for companies to innovate. In mid-December, he
issued an executive order that directed the development of this framework.
"Congress should preempt state AI laws that impose undue burdens to ensure a minimally burdensome national standard consistent with these recommendations, not fifty discordant ones," the White House's four-page
national legislative framework on AI reads.
But the White House wants some limits on the preemption.
The national standard should not preempt states' ability to enforce laws against fraud and to protect children and consumers, according to the framework. Nor should it preempt states' zoning laws to determine where to put AI infrastructure or requirements on states' own use of AI.
"Preemption must ensure that state laws do not govern areas better suited to the federal government or act contrary to the United States' national strategy to achieve global AI dominance," the framework states.
Last summer, as part of budget reconciliation, Congress was on the brink of including a provision that would have blocked states from regulating AI for a decade, but the Senate wound up
voting 99-1 to strip it out after backlash from a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general, scores of consumer advocacy groups and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Then House Republicans tried and failed to include the moratorium in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 at the end of last year.
Another aspect of the framework addresses the intellectual property rights of creators, innovators and publishers.
The White House expressed support for letting the courts decide whether using copyrighted material to train AI models violates copyright law and directed Congress not to interfere with this. This has
become a hot-button litigation issue in the last three years.
However, the White House does have some policy prescriptions related to creators' rights.
"Congress should consider enabling licensing frameworks or collective rights systems for rights holders to collectively negotiate compensation from AI providers, without incurring antitrust liability," the framework says. "Any such legislation, however, should not address when or whether such licensing is required."
Additionally, the framework directs Congress to consider a federal plan to protect individuals from the unauthorized commercial use or distribution of AI replicas of their likeness, voice or other personal attributes, with exceptions for satire and news reporting.
AI infrastructure is also addressed in the framework, following Trump's proclamation during his
State of the Union last month that major technology companies must make sure that the cost of their power demands is not passed onto consumers.
This was formalized with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge that the White House announced March 4 that
Amazon,
Google, Meta,
Microsoft,
OpenAI, Oracle and xAI signed.
"In accordance with the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, Congress should ensure that residential ratepayers do not experience increased electricity costs as a result of new AI data center construction and operation," the framework states. "At the same time, Congress should streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure construction and operation so AI developers can develop or procure on-site and behind-the-meter power generation to accelerate AI infrastructure buildout and enhance grid reliability."
Other components of the framework are meant to prevent the federal government from pressuring technology companies, including AI providers, to censor speech based on partisan ideologies; to ensure the federal government doesn't preempt state laws prohibiting child sexual abuse material when it's produced by AI; and to make federal datasets available for industry and academia to train their AI models and systems.
Industry groups such as the Internet & Television Association and NetChoice, whose members include Google, Amazon,
TikTok and X, applauded the framework.
"The Trump administration understands that it was a light-touch regulatory environment, not 50 different confusing and conflicting regulatory regimes, that enabled the internet revolution and that innovation and investment in winning the AI future for America will require a similar approach," Patrick Hedger, director of policy at NetChoice, said in a statement.
Also sharing their approval were House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La.; House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.; and Rep. Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee; Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, chair of the House Judiciary Committee; and Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, chair of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
Meanwhile, Robert Weissman, co-president of
Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy organization that has been prolific in suing the Trump administration, said the framework is a "payback" to Big Tech companies for supporting the president's ballroom and funding First Lady Melania Trump's movie.
"Trump's AI framework is a hollow document with only one tough and meaningfully binding provision, delivering Big Tech's top policy priority: It aims to preempt all state laws and rules dealing with AI," he said.
Additionally, a group of Democrats in both chambers Friday announced a bill that would repeal Trump's executive order from December in order to preserve states' right to regulate AI,
"The Trump White House aims to kill state AI laws without setting even minimally acceptable federal guardrails, exposing the American public to the growing risks accompanying completely unchecked artificial intelligence," said Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., co-chair of the Congressional Artificial Intelligence Caucus, in a statement.
–Additional reporting from Allison Grande. Editing by Amy French.
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