House Republicans surprised tech industry watchers and outraged state governments when they added a clause to Republicans' signature " big, beautiful " tax bill that would ban states and localities from regulating artificial intelligence for a decade.
The brief but consequential provision, tucked into the House Energy and Commerce Committee's sweeping markup , would be a major boon to the AI industry, which has lobbied for uniform and light touch regulation as tech firms develop a technology they promise will transform society.
However, while the clause would be far-reaching if enacted, it faces long odds in the U.S. Senate, where procedural rules may doom its inclusion in the GOP legislation.
"I don't know whether it will pass the Byrd Rule," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, referring to a provision that requires that all parts of a budget reconciliation bill, like the GOP plan , focus mainly on the budgetary matters rather than general policy aims.
"That sounds to me like a policy change. I'm not going to speculate what the parliamentarian is going to do but I think it is unlikely to make it," Cornyn said.