More than 50 Democratic state lawmakers sent a letter late Thursday night to House Speaker Mike Johnson in opposition to the proposed suspension on state and local attempts to regulate the artificial intelligence industry. The controversial attempt to preempt state-level AI regulations is part of House GOP’s proposed budget bill, which is due to be marked up Friday morning.
“This proposed moratorium exacerbates the risks of AI development by selectively excluding laws that will not only undermine national and local council work to minimize existing harms, but also facilitate the removal of guardrails that the state has already implemented.”
The sign-on letter was organized by State Senator Christen Gonzalez, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Internet and Technology. “I think New York is leading the country in the fight for the safe and responsible adoption of AI technology,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “This moratorium would undermine the work of the National Parliament if passed, if Big Tech’s influence is greater than ever and if businesses are benefiting their responsibility to protect people’s privacy, autonomy and livelihoods.
A total of 56 lawmakers from the state Senate and Congress signed the letter. Signatories include many state legislators who sponsor bills that regulate aspects of the AI industry, including current Senators Neely Logic and Congressional members Clyde Vannell and Alex Boaz. But Republicans never signed the letter, nor did they do that, nor did they.
New York is the national leader in AI regulations. In 2024, Gov. Kathy Hochul signed the Load Act, a bill introduced by Gonzalez that required state agencies to disclose the use of AI tools. This year’s state budget included provisions under the bill sponsored by Rozic and Vanel. This requires that the AI chatbot be disclosed to users that it is not human.
Congress is currently considering additional AI-related bills, including Gonzalez’s New York AI Act (which aims to prevent discrimination of algorithms through AI tools), and Boa and state Sen. Andrew Goonard (which requires AI companies to implement safety plans when developing risk, cutting AI models).
There are even more AI-related bills on the horizon. Bores, a computer engineer who previously worked for AI company Palantir, has proposed at least half a dozen invoices that regulate various aspects of technology.
Lawmakers in New York aren’t just worried about the House GOP’s attempts to block the state from regulating AI. Earlier this week, Gonzalez joined state legislators in Maryland, Virginia, Connecticut, Colorado, Minnesota and Vermont, calling on Americans to urge Congressional representatives to oppose a 10-year suspension on state restrictions on AI.
Supporters of the proposed moratorium argue that allowing individual states to create their own bills regulating AI companies would expose American AI companies to an excessive deficit. They believe that Congress should be ahead of passing its own laws that regulate AI industries at the national level and regulate the state.
But moratorium opponents, including more than 50 lawmakers who signed Gonzalez’s letter, point out that Congress has failed to pass AI regulations so far, forcing New York states to take the issue into their own hands.
“The federal government struggles to act on regulating artificial intelligence, but states are leading the way and enacting laws that protect Americans from the numerous threats posed by rapid technological advances in automated decision-making systems,” the letter wrote.
