Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, AI NEWS: Bicameral bill would empower states to address AI threats, (Mar 24, 2026)

By Tom Leithauser,tom.leithauser@wolterskluwer.com

The proposed legislation would declare that an AI executive order issued by President Trump last December have no effect.

Legislation that seeks to preserve states’ powers to address the risks from artificial intelligence, including data security and privacy, has been introduced in the House and Senate. The Guaranteeing and Upholding Americans’ Right to Decide Responsible AI Laws and Standards (GUARDRAILS) Act would declare that an AI executive order issued by President Trump last December “shall have no force or effect, and no Federal funds may be used to implement, administer, enforce, or carry out that Executive order.”

“This legislation would prohibit the executive order from taking effect to ensure states can enact commonsense safeguards to protect the American public in the face of rapidly evolving AI technologies,” the legislation’s sponsors said in a news release.

The House version of the bill (H.R. 8031, 119th Cong. (2026)) was introduced by Rep. Don Beyer (D., Va.) along with 33 Democratic co-sponsors. The Senate companion will be sponsored by Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii).

The president’s EO and a follow-on AI legislative policy framework released on March 20, 2026, would preempt state action on AI without filling the gap with federal legislation to address AI’s risks, the lawmakers said.

“President Trump’s executive order would kill responsible safety reforms without providing any federal protections or AI governance requirements to replace the state laws it seeks to preempt. This executive order was followed by the White House’s National AI Policy Framework, which reinforces the administration’s commitment to preempting state-level AI laws without the establishment of clear, enforceable guardrails to address the urgent risks posed by AI systems,” they said.

“In today’s lawless, Wild West artificial intelligence environment, states have been leading the charge to implement safeguards addressing serious risks ranging from algorithmic bias to data privacy and consumer protection. But the Trump White House aims to kill state AI laws without setting even minimally acceptable federal guardrails, exposing the American public to the growing risks accompanying completely unchecked artificial intelligence,” Rep. Beyer said.

“I’ve built my career advocating for digital protections for our most vulnerable Americans, including children and seniors, from cyber threats like fraud, data breaches, deepfakes, and more. Businesses do better—and strive to do better—when commonsense laws are in place to guide their decisions," said Rep. April McClain Delaney (D., Md.), co-sponsor of the House bill.

Another critic of the administration’s AI policies, Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the president’s AI legislative framework lacked “significant substance.”

“We need laws on AI and children’s privacy and data, including the kinds of user-empowering tools I’ve long championed in bipartisan legislation. We need to do more on deepfake non-consensual intimate images, as I’ve advocated for years now,” Sen. Warner said in a statement.

“We also need national security agencies to establish plans to mitigate against national security threats from advanced AI. But, two years in a row, the Senate Intelligence Committee passed bills that would have required that kind of proactive engagement strategy to get ahead of malicious foreign actors. And two years in a row, President Trump's allies in Congress killed those provisions from being enacted into law,” Sen. Warner said.

“Unfortunately, this slim framework also does many things wrong,” he added. “Overall, it reminds me of the administration’s cybersecurity strategy: several pages of broad goals, all of them short on substance.”

News: AINews Privacy