Artificial intelligence is driving the next great wave of American innovation, but state capitols across the country are threatening to derail it before it gets out of the gate. The recent hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee laid the stakes bare. Across the country, more than 1,000 state AI bills are creating a chaotic patchwork of rules that throttle investment, burden small business, and hand our global competitors the edge. As noted in the hearing, this isn’t the “laboratories of democracy” our Founders envisioned; this is a quagmire that poses a direct risk to the nation. If America wants to lead in the AI era, we need one national framework, not fifty conflicting ones.
The stakes could not be higher. AI is not just another app or gadget, and it is more than just the chatbots that most people are familiar with. AI is poised to transform health care, education, manufacturing, and national defense, and its benefits only scale with use. That’s why the United States cannot afford to let a handful of state legislatures dictate the terms of how we as a nation develop and deploy AI across the country. Fragmented rules mean fractured markets, stunted growth, and lost opportunities for workers and entrepreneurs.
Unfortunately, many states are importing the worst features of Europe’s technocratic regulatory model: a regulate-first, innovate-later approach that addresses hypothetical harms at the expense of real world benefits. Europe’s obsession with precautionary red tape has left its digital economy lagging far behind. Today, America leads the world in global innovation while Europe has not even a single company to rival those in the U.S. Moreover, Europe’s role in global technology continues to shrink. Europe’s fate should be a warning to all of us. Do we really want to allow a web of complex and competing laws to jeopardize our technology leadership at this critical time?
This danger is especially acute for startups and small businesses, including the “Little Tech” firms driving much of today’s AI revolution. While larger, well established companies might be able to navigate sprawling compliance regimes, scrappy innovators cannot. Every new audit requirement, every state-defined “high risk” category, every conflicting rule across borders tilts the playing field against new entrants and toward the few companies with the lawyers and lobbyists to manage them.
Even governors who have signed AI bills are sounding the alarm. Colorado Governor Jared Polis (D) warned that state-level AI regulation would “tamper innovation and deter competition in an open market.” His legislature just delayed its own law over cost and compliance concerns. Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (D) worries about a “patchwork quilt of regulations,” while New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) admits that a state-by-state scramble “is not a model for inspiring innovation.” When the state politicians considering these laws are voicing concerns and telling Congress to step in, it’s a sign that the problem is spiraling.
The solution is clear: Congress must act swiftly to establish one national AI framework.
That framework should preempt state attempts to regulate frontier AI labs and models. These systems are critical to America’s ability to compete with adversaries like China. State officials lack the expertise and the national security context to dictate safety standards for frontier models. Federal agencies like the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), supported by the new Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), are the right bodies to oversee these evaluations and standard setting. It should also prevent states from imposing mandates like algorithmic audits or impact assessments. If rules are needed in these areas, they should be set federally, under the same civil rights and anti-discrimination standards that already govern commerce nationwide.
This is not an argument for no regulation. It is an argument for smart, responsible, and innovation-friendly regulation at the federal level. States will still play a vital role in areas of clear local concern and consumer protection issues where context matters most. But make no mistake: if Congress doesn’t step in soon, America will strangle its AI future in red tape. We will have traded our global leadership position for a regulatory swamp, leaving entrepreneurs stuck in compliance limbo and ceding ground to China and others racing ahead.
History shows us the better path. When faced with the onset of the internet, Congress trusted in dynamism, encouraged experimentation, and let innovation flourish. The result was an era of unprecedented American leadership in technology. It’s time to repeat that playbook for AI. This is a once-in-a-generation moment. Congress must act now to ensure that the future of AI is made in America.