John,

A little-known provision in the Senate’s budget bill will kill every state law for the next decade that regulates artificial intelligence and recommendation algorithms on social media.

Buried inside of the so-called “big, beautiful” budget bill is a section that bans states from enforcing laws that regulate AI. And if states don’t comply? They would lose hundreds of millions of dollars in broadband funding that communities desperately need to support internet access for schools, hospitals, local governments, and much more.

This is a fast-moving attack on states’ rights and on critical efforts to hold big technology corporations accountable for their harms.

We’ve teamed up with our partners at Design It For Us who are helping drive calls to offices on this very issue. Call your senators now and tell them to reject a ban on AI regulation in the budget bill!

If this provision makes it into the final bill it would:

• Wipeout hundreds of state consumer safety laws that protect Americans against AI scams, child sexual abuse material, election deepfakes, and more. [1]
• Block all state-level AI regulation for the next 10 years and kill more than 300 existing laws.
• Put states at risk of losing millions of dollars of broadband funds that they’ve already been awarded. [2]
• Give tech giants a blank check to experiment on Americans — without any oversight.

This isn’t policymaking — it’s blackmail. The moratorium would force states to make an impossible choice: protect their community from AI and social media harms OR forfeit millions in broadband funding that is essential for schools, families, and local infrastructure.

We need your help to ensure states aren’t forced to make that choice. Call your senators and urge them to oppose the AI moratorium in the budget bill.

Thanks for all you do,
The Issue One Team

^{[1] https://www.techpolicy.press/the-state-ai-laws-likeliest-to-be-blocked-by-a-moratorium/}

^{[2] https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-senates-ai-pause-may-take-billions-in-state-broadband-funds-hostage/}