Tennessee U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) introduced an amendment on Monday evening seeking to strip a 10-year moratorium on state-level laws regulating artificial intelligence (AI) from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
The original proposal in the budget reconciliation bill (Section 43201: Artificial intelligence and information technology modernization initiative) would impose a 10-year prohibition on states from enforcing any state law or regulation addressing AI and automated decision-making systems.
While Blackburn announced her opposition to the original AI language in the bill last week, the Tennessee senator reportedly struck a deal with Texas U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) on an updated draft of the moratorium over the weekend.
Monday evening, however, Blackburn filed an amendment seeking to strip the moratorium from the budget reconciliation bill completely.
Thank you to Sen. @MarshaBlackburn for standing up to the 10-year AI law moratorium!!
Tech safeguards are critical for kids, artists and creators, consumers, and Americans across the country. Thank you for being a champion for policy that puts people first! pic.twitter.com/r9XjuBxMS0
— Americans for Responsible Innovation (@americans4ri) July 1, 2025
In a statement obtained by The Hill, Blackburn said she moved to strip the AI language from the bill altogether as the language of the updated moratorium was “not acceptable to those who need these protections the most.”
“For as long as I’ve been in Congress, I’ve worked alongside federal and state legislators, parents seeking to protect their kids online, and the creative community in Tennessee to fight back against Big Tech’s exploitation by passing legislation to govern the virtual space,” Blackburn said, according to the outlet. “This provision could allow Big Tech to continue to exploit kids, creators, and conservatives.”
Americans for Responsible Innovation, a nonprofit organization that strongly pushed back against the AI moratorium, thanked Blackburn for her amendment seeking to strip the AI language from the budget reconciliation bill.
“Tech safeguards are critical for kids, artists and creators, consumers, and Americans across the country. Thank you for being a champion for policy that puts people first,” the organization said.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who was among a group of governors that recently called on Congress to strip the moratorium from the bill, also applauded Blackburn’s filing of the amendment, writing in an X post, “This is how you take on big tech!”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Image “Sen. Marsha Blackburn” by Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
