GOP split deepens as Senate blocks AI moratorium Trump and Cruz both wanted

The Senate is quietly winning the battle over states’ ability to develop their own artificial intelligence (AI) regulations, but there is still a desire to establish a rough framework at the federal level.

The issue of a blanket moratorium on AI, which would have prevented states from developing their own regulations on AI, was reportedly left aside over the summer. But the initiative was revived again by House Republicans, who were considering including it in the annual National Defense Authorization Act.

However, Republicans in the lower House backed away from the initiative, even as the White House pressed Congress to create a federal framework that would make regulations more consistent across the country.

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Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., is one of several Senate Republicans who have pushed to prevent a moratorium on state AI regulations. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

A trio of Senate Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who banded together to block the initial proposal, welcomed the provision’s apparent exit from the grave.

Hawley told Fox News Digital that it was good news that this provision was not included in the defense authorization bill, but warned that “vigilance is necessary and Congress must act.”

“I mean, for everyone who says, ‘Well, Congress needs to step up and create a single standard,’ I agree with that,” he said. “And we can start by banning chatbots from minors.”

Sen. Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, who chairs the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, initially pushed for a moratorium to be included in Trump’s One Big, Beautiful bill. His stance on the issue has been to unleash AI to give the United States a competitive advantage against foreign adversaries like China.

But that attempt was almost unanimously rejected over the summer and removed from the bill. And Cruz didn’t give up.

“The discussions are ongoing, but the White House is leading,” Cruz told Fox News Digital.

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Senator Ted Cruz wants to unleash AI to give the United States a competitive advantage against China. (Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., acknowledged it would be difficult to write the moratorium into the defense authorization bill earlier this week.

“It’s controversial, as you know,” Thune said. “So, I mean, I think the White House is working with senators and House members to try to find something that works but preserves states’ rights.”

Trump said last month that the United States “MUST have one federal standard instead of a patchwork of 50 state regulatory regimes,” and argued that excessive regulation at the state level threatened investment and expected growth in AI.

The White House reportedly drafted an executive order that would have blocked states from regulating AI and denied certain federal funding streams to states that failed to comply with the executive order, and directed the Justice Department to sue states that developed their own regulations.

So far, Trump has taken no action on this order.

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Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., rejected Cruz’s attempt to include an AI moratorium in the One Big, Beautiful Bill. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Blackburn, who was the main player in thwarting Cruz’s previous attempt to impose a moratorium on AI in Trump’s flagship tax bill, also wants some sort of federal framework, but one designed to “protect children, consumers, creators and conservatives,” a spokesperson for Blackburn told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“Senator Blackburn will continue her decade-long effort to work with her colleagues in the House and Senate to pass federal standards governing the virtual space and rein in big tech companies that prey on children for profit,” the spokesperson said.

And Johnson, another key figure in blocking the moratorium earlier this year, argued to Fox News Digital that it was an “extremely complex problem. That’s my definition of a problem.”

But unlike his counterparts, he was more skeptical of Congress’s ability to produce a framework he would be comfortable with.

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“I’m not a real fan of this place,” Johnson said. “And I think we’d be a lot better off if we passed a lot fewer laws. I don’t know how often we get that done. Look at health care, look at how completely botched it’s been.”

“What are we going to do with AI? Hard to say, but we’re just not going through the problem-solving process,” he continued. “And again I’m worried, the real experts on the subject have vested interests. Whatever their advice, can you really trust them?”