The White House executive order aimed at limiting the impacts of U.S. state-level AI laws has finally landed. U.S. President Donald Trump signed the order 11 Dec., effectuating agency mandates that will seek to halt the enforcement of existing state AI laws characterized as "burdensome" while also discouraging state legislatures from passing new laws.
The Department of Justice will launch a task force charged with challenging the constitutionality of state AI laws. Within 90 days, the Department of Commerce will provide the task force with analysis and referrals to help the DOJ identify which laws to target.
To support preemption goals, the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission will each put forth initiatives toward setting federal standards for AI development and use. The FCC is ordered to consider AI model reporting and disclosure standards while the FTC will draft a policy statement outlining how the FTC Act preempts state deception statutes that apply to AI.
With the aim to dissuade new legislation, the administration will draft a policy statement outlining state's federal funding eligibility and how AI laws characterized as unconstitutional may impact funding status. The order indicates eligibility for Broadband Equity Access and Deployment funds and related discretionary grant programs will be impacted.
The final order mirrors a leaked draft that sat idle since late November. One notable addition to the final text's section on future federal AI legislation is fresh commitments to avoid preempting state laws in a few specific areas, including those covering children's online safety, and state government procurement and use.
During a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, President Trump insisted the U.S. needs "a central source of approval" for AI development and use, noting "50 different approvals from 50 different states" will make it impossible for the country to continue its AI leadership. "We have to be unified," he added.
Trump also took aim at "hostile actors" with onerous AI laws already on the books, citing California, Illinois and New York. Meanwhile, the final order uses Colorado's AI Act as an example of the type of law that counters innovation goals.
The order carves out a big role for White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks. He will be the chief consultant on all department mandates laid out in the order, while joining White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Director Michael Kratsios on delivering policy recommendations to Congress for appropriate federal regulation.
"It basically states the policy of your administration is to create that federal framework," Sacks said during the signing ceremony. "We're going to work with Congress ... to define that framework, but in the meantime, this [order] gives [Trump] tools to push back on the most onerous and excessive state regulations."
The order comes following congressional shortcomings on state AI moratorium proposals that Trump supported. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Chair Ted Cruz, R-Texas, raised the initial moratorium proposal that was left out of July's reconciliation bill and reconsidered again in National Defense Authorization Act negotiations before ultimately being abandoned again.
"There was a similar inflection point with the dawn of the internet. Bill Clinton was president at the time and signed an executive order like [Trump is] doing that put into law a light-touch regulatory approach to the internet," Cruz said at the signing. "The result was incredible economic growth and jobs in the U.S."
House Republicans have warmed to Trump and Cruz's sentiments on how state laws restrict AI innovation and global leadership. Cruz's Senate colleagues have proven to be the hurdle, with bipartisan opposition to the moratorium and any other vehicle to limit state laws without a federal backstop in place.
Joe Duball is the news editor for the IAPP.