Trump Administration Campaign Against State AI Regulation Faces Congressional and State Resistance

Apr 20, 2026

The Trump administration is pursuing a three-pronged campaign to preempt state AI regulation through Executive Order 14365, signed December 11, 2025, which created a DOJ AI Litigation Task Force, directed Commerce to evaluate state laws, and conditioned federal broadband funding on states avoiding AI regulations. This effort faces significant resistance as states dramatically accelerated AI legislation from fewer than 200 bills in 2023 to 1,208 bills across all 50 states in 2025 with 145 enacted, while a bipartisan coalition of 36 state attorneys general opposes federal preemption and the Senate voted 99-1 to strip AI preemption from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The conflict has sparked massive political spending, with the tech industry reportedly spending over $1 billion to prevent state regulation while competing super PACs—Leading the Future with $70 million and Public First Action with $50 million pledged—back opposing candidates. Colorado, California, and Texas have already implemented AI laws, with Colorado's attorney general committed to challenging the executive order in court as the DOJ prepares federal legal challenges by summer 2026.

Federal campaign to preempt state AI regulation

▪Executive Order 14365 created an AI Litigation Task Force within the Department of Justice, operational from 10 January 2026, to challenge state AI laws in federal court.
▪Executive Order 14365, titled 'Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,' was signed on 11 December 2025.
▪A National Policy Framework for AI was released on 20 March containing legislative recommendations organized around seven pillars.
▪The Trump administration revoked Biden's Executive Order 14110 within hours of taking office on 20 January 2025.
▪The White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs sent a letter to Utah Senate Majority Leader Kirk Cullimore Jr. on 12 February stating categorical opposition to Utah HB 286.
▪Executive Order 14365 directed the Secretary of Commerce to publish by 11 March a comprehensive evaluation of state AI laws identifying burdensome ones.

State legislative response and acceleration of AI bills

▪Doug Fiefia introduced Utah House Bill 286, the Artificial Intelligence Transparency Act, which would have required frontier AI companies to publish safety and child-protection plans.
▪Utah Governor Spencer Cox announced a pro-human AI initiative with $10 million for workforce readiness.
▪Utah House Bill 286 targeted only frontier developers using at least 10^26 floating-point operations to train a model and carried a $1 million penalty cap.
▪California's Transparency in Frontier Artificial Intelligence Act took effect on 1 January 2026.
▪Texas's Responsible Artificial Intelligence Governance Act became effective on 1 January 2026.

Congressional rejection of federal preemption efforts

▪The Senate voted 99 to 1 to strip the AI preemption provision from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
▪Senator Marsha Blackburn's TRUMP AMERICA AI Act would repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
▪Senator Marsha Blackburn's TRUMP AMERICA AI Act is a 291-page discussion draft released on 18 March.

Lobbying and political infrastructure on both sides

▪Leading the Future raised $125 million in 2025 and had $70 million on hand at year end.
▪Public First Action's broader network of super PACs has pledged $50 million for pro-regulation candidates.
▪Leading the Future is a super PAC launched in August 2025 by Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI president Greg Brockman.
▪Anthropic donated $20 million in February 2026 to Public First Action.

Perspective of Public First Action and AI safety advocates

▪Anthropic's $20 million donation to Public First Action in February 2026 signals support for candidates who favor AI safety regulations over industry self-regulation.