White House Releases Ai Policy Blueprint For Congress

The White House on Friday published a long-awaited policy wishlist for the federal regulation of artificial intelligence that it hopes Congress will codify into law.

The light-touch framework blends the Trump administration’s effort to create a national AI rulebook on issues like political bias within models and reducing barriers to innovation with protections for children and teens online.

It also urges Congress to overrule state AI laws that the administration says “impose undue burdens,” in favor of the “minimally burdensome” federal law that it’s recommending. The Trump administration has been trying to establish preemption over state AI laws using Congress and executive order for roughly a year, arguing that the patchwork of laws harms AI innovation.

The framework explicitly calls on Congress to preempt any state laws that regulate the way models are developed or that penalize companies for the way their AI is used by others, and instructs U.S. lawmakers not to create any new federal agencies to regulate AI.

The proposal outlines some areas where the federal government’s laws wouldn’t overrule those of the states, and asks Congress to allow states to keep laws that protect children, including those that ban AI-generated child sexual abuse material.

The framework also asks Congress to create age-gating requirements for models likely to be accessed by children and to give parents tools to set up safeguards around their children's use. It does not go as far as some Republicans have called for, such as proposals to roll back liability shields for tech companies.

In addition, it calls on federal lawmakers to pass legislation that encourages AI skills training and education, as well as data collection on job disruption that stems from AI.

The White House also recommends in the document that Congress codify Trump’s ratepayer protection pledge, signed by companies including Amazon, Google and OpenAI earlier this month, requiring tech firms to supply or pay for the electricity used by the data centers they operate.

Trump administration officials have sought to gather support from Republican lawmakers for a light-touch approach to AI regulation in recent months. It’s unlikely, however, to receive bipartisan support in Congress.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) told POLITICO earlier in March that a potential bill could be melded with a larger package that includes a kids’ online safety bill, known as KOSA, which could entice Democrats. Commerce Committee Chair Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who is working with Thune and the White House to hammer out such a bill, said he hopes to put something forward by the end of April.

Still, even Republicans had concerns about overpowering states on the issue, Thune said.

"We've got to figure out how to do this in a way that addresses the concerns that a lot of our members have about not trampling state's rights in the process,” Thune said at the time. “We're just trying to figure out how to thread that needle.”

The White House in December signed an executive order that barred states from passing laws that impose new limits on AI companies. The White House pledged to follow with a proposal for a federal framework to regulate the technology that would be “minimally burdensome.”

“We have the big investment coming, but if they had to get 50 different approvals from 50 different states, you can forget it because it’s impossible to do,” Trump said in the Oval Office when he signed the order.

Attempts to solidify federal preemption in Congress have failed on two separate occasions. Senate lawmakers last summer voted to strike a proposal that would impose a 10-year ban on states doing anything to regulate AI from President Trump's landmark One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which has since become law. An attempt to attach moratorium language to the National Defense Authorization Act late last year was also scuttled.

The administration is also expected to publish an evaluation of state AI laws that have already been passed and that it deems to be “onerous.”

States are then expected to face broadband and internet funding restrictions because of those laws. Both actions, expected within 90 days of the president’s December executive order calling on states to stop passing AI legislation, are now a week behind their expected deadline.