Senator Blackburn draws support for AI moratorium on Trump’s “big beautiful bill” amid backlash

It’s sprinting as Congress is racing to pass President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful bill.” Many dislikes Among the bill’s “AI Moratorium” provisions, originally a 10-year hiatus on state AI regulations was required.

The provision, defended by White House Ai Zar and venture capitalist David Sachs, has proven to be significantly less popular on a range of diverse lawmakers’ terms of 40 ranges. State Attorney General To Ultra Magazine Marjorie Taylor Greene. On Sunday night, Senators Marsha Blackburn and Ted Cruz announced a new version of the AI ​​moratorium, knocking on the 10-5 year suspension and adding various sculptures. But Blackburn reversed the course Monday evening after critics attacked the bouncing version of critics as a “free card for escape” of Big Tech.

“I am grateful for President Cruz’s efforts to find acceptable languages ​​that enable the nation to protect its citizens from AI abuse, but the current languages ​​are not acceptable to those who need these protections the most,” Blackburn said in a statement to Wired. “This provision could allow Big Tech to continue using children, creators and conservatives. Congress cannot prevent states from enacting laws that protect their citizens until they pass federal preemptive laws, such as the Children’s Online Safety Act and the Online Privacy Framework.”

For those who track at home, Blackburn initially opposed the moratorium, then worked with Cruz on a version of the clause for the next five years, changing her mind again, opposing her own compromised version of the law.

She has historically defended regulations protecting the music industry, a major economic player in Tennessee’s hometown. Last year, Tennessee passed laws to stop deepfake music artists. Her proposed AI clause includes exemptions from this type of law, which expands the legal right to protect portraits from commercial exploitation. The version of the moratorium she and Cruz proposed on Sunday also included “there were sculptures of state law dealing with unfair or deceptive behavior or practices, child online safety, child sexual abuse material, rights to promote, protection of persons’ names, images, voices, or similarities.

Despite these sculptures, the new AI regulations received intense opposition from a wide range of organizations and individuals by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (“Dangerous Federal Overreach”). Steve Bannon (“They will do all the dirty work in the first five years.”)

Moratorium’s carve-out language comes with a warning that exempt state laws cannot place “over or unbalanced burdens” on AI systems or “automatic decision systems.” With AI and algorithmic feeds embedded in social platforms, critics like Senator Maria Cantwell consider the language of the clause to create a “brand new shield to litigation and state regulations.”

Many advocacy groups and legal experts who have focused on these issues, including child safety regulations, say the new AI regulations remain extremely harmful. Danny Weiss, chief advocacy officer at non-profit Common Sense Media, said the version is still “very cleaned” due to excessive strain and “can affect almost every effort to regulate technology in terms of safety.”

The JB Branch, a nonprofit public citizen advocate for consumer rights, called the updated moratorium “a clever Trojan horse designed to wipe out the protections of the state in preserving them,” claiming that the unfairly burdened language has made the sculpture “meaningless.”

On Monday, Senator Cantwell and Senator Ed Markey introduced them. Correction Markey’s statement said it denies the proposed version of “wolves in sheep’s clothing” on Sunday evening to remove the AI ​​suspension from the bill completely. “The language still allows the Trump administration to use federal broadband funds as a weapon against states, and still prevents states from protecting children online from Big Tech’s predatory behavior,” he said. (The Moratorium combines access to funds from broadband equity, access and deployment programs to comply with the five-year suspension.)

The Trump administration urged Congress to vote for a big beautiful bill before the July 4 holiday break. It is unclear when this amendment will be voted, but it may be soon. And there may be supporters at Blackburn.