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WASHINGTON, DC – Today, during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) blasted House Republicans for supporting a ten-year moratorium on state legislation to protect Americans from harms caused by artificial intelligence (AI). The ban was included in the GOP’s reconciliation package passed by the Committee last week and set to be considered on the House floor as soon as today.

CLICK HERE or the image below to view Trahan’s remarks during the Committee’s consideration of reconciliation legislation. A transcript is embedded below.

“Under Republican leadership, this committee has failed time and time again to protect Americans’ privacy and safeguard our children online. GOP leaders have blocked whistleblower protections for tech workers who risk their livelihoods to shine a light on their employers' privacy abuses. They killed comprehensive privacy legislation to minimize data collection and ensure proper use. They said no to simple transparency legislation so independent auditors could make sure Big Tech companies aren’t breaking the law,” Congresswoman Trahan said. “But what Republican members of this committee did find time to do last week – in the middle of the night by the way – is force through an unprecedented giveaway to the tech industry: A ten-year ban on state laws that could make AI safer for our constituents.”

Last week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee marked up House Republicans’ reconciliation package that will cut $715 billion from Medicaid and eliminate health coverage for at least 13.7 million Americans. Included in that bill is a provision that would ban states from creating or implementing laws to limit potential harms of AI, effectively allowing Big Tech companies to deploy a rapidly changing technology without any accountability for its negative impacts.

During debate over the legislation, Trahan spoke in support of an amendment filed by House Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Member Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) to strike the 10-year moratorium on state AI regulation. Every Republican on the committee voted against the amendment, preserving the provision in the bill. In response to Republicans’ ban on AI regulation and its passage out of the Committee, hundreds of civil liberties and consumer protection organizations, as well as a bipartisan group of over 40 state Attorneys General, have expressed strong opposition, describing the harmful impact the ban would have on consumers by depriving them of rights duly provided by state legislatures.

“Make no mistake. The families who have come to this committee and begged for us to act won’t benefit from this proposal, but you know who will? The Big Tech CEOs who were sitting behind Donald Trump at his inauguration,” Congresswoman Trahan continued.

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Congresswoman Lori Trahan

Remarks As Delivered

House Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing on “AI Regulation and the Future of US Leadership”

May 21, 2025

I thank the Ranking Member for yielding.

Under Republican leadership, this committee has failed time and time again to protect Americans’ privacy and safeguard our children online.

GOP leaders have blocked whistleblower protections for tech workers who risk their livelihoods to shine a light on their employers' privacy abuses. They killed comprehensive privacy legislation to minimize data collection and ensure proper use. They said no to simple transparency legislation so independent auditors could make sure Big Tech companies aren’t breaking the law.

But what Republican members of this committee did find time to do last week – in the middle of the night by the way – is force through an unprecedented giveaway to the tech industry: A ten-year ban on state laws that could make AI safer for our constituents.

Make no mistake. The families who have come to this committee and begged for us to act won’t benefit from this proposal, but you know who will? The Big Tech CEOs who were sitting behind Donald Trump at his inauguration.

Now, we can agree that a patchwork of various state laws is not good for innovation, for business, or consumers. But this is a bad policy because it sets another disincentive for us to act urgently or even in time. All the while, Republicans are once again ceding Congress’s duty to protect Americans’ privacy to the very companies who are perpetrating the worst abuses online.

You’re basically inviting the fox into the hen house.

And you’re doing so under the justification that this will somehow motivate Congress to unify the patchwork of state laws currently in existence. But that hasn’t happened yet.

Just look at what happened to the privacy bill that we crafted together on this committee. The moment that Big Tech started lobbying against it, the Republican Speaker and the Majority Leader caved. They killed the bill. And now you turn around and try to deceive the American people into accepting this ridiculous alternative?

Come on. Our constituents aren’t stupid. They want real action from us to rein in the abuses of tech companies, not to give them blanket immunity to abuse our most sensitive data even more.

At the same time, our Republican colleagues are complaining about Europe’s tech laws, which we can acknowledge are imperfect. But at least they had the guts to do something – literally anything – to make the internet better for the folks they represent. Shame on us if we don’t answer the same demands from the American people.

I urge my colleagues to reject this giveaway to the same Big Tech companies that have stymied every attempt at updating our privacy laws. I want to urge my colleagues to vote no on the partisan reconciliation bill when the same leaders who killed our bipartisan privacy legislation bring it to the floor.

And let’s just get to work in a bipartisan way to foster innovation and protect our constituents with sensible guardrails on Big Tech. Thank you. I yield back.

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