John,

Congress is handing Big Tech a blank check to write its own rules for artificial intelligence -- and we’ll all pay the price.

Tucked deep inside the House-passed budget bill is a sweeping provision that would ban state and local governments from regulating AI for the next ten years. That’s a very long time for an industry that is morphing so quickly in front of our very eyes.

And it’s a massive giveaway to tech giants that are already using AI to monitor workers, manipulate consumers, and erode trust in our democracy.

Here’s the kicker: the bill ties billions in broadband funding to this regulatory ban. If your state wants to expand internet access, it must surrender its right to protect people from the harms of AI -- a choice no state should be forced to make.

This is the same bill that gives billions of dollars to billionaires while kicking over 10 million people off Medicaid, and gutting funding for thousands of clean energy projects. It’s just a bad bill in so many ways.

Send a direct message to demand your Senators reject the AI regulation provision in the Big Bad Budget bill, before it robs the states of the ability to regulate artificial intelligence now.

If passed, this provision would block states from:

• Regulating biased AI hiring methods

• Keeping an eye on AI surveillance tools

• Requiring transparency in AI systems used in healthcare, education, and public safety

• Protecting consumers from deepfakes and deceptive ads

• Preventing racial and other forms of algorithmic discrimination

• Enforcing fair practices in housing, credit, and employment

In other words, it would let Big Tech set its own rules, enforce its own standards, and silence any state trying to hold it accountable -- all while Congress continues to stall on any kind of meaningful federal oversight.

This isn’t innovation. It’s abdication. And it would lock in ten years of inaction at the very moment we’re just beginning to understand the real risks of unregulated AI.

We must protect the right of states to act. And we must protect the public from unchecked AI. We cannot hand over our future to corporate lobbyists and congressional gridlock.

- DFA AF Team