The order, titled “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” creates an AI Litigation Task Force within the Justice Department to directly challenge state AI laws that the administration finds conflict with federal policy. It also directs the Commerce Department to create guidelines that could make states ineligible for future broadband funding if they pass “tough” AI laws.
The push for broad federal preemption of state AI laws has been promoted largely by AI investors, conservative policy outlets, and tech industry trade groups. These groups have argued that a patchwork approach to AI regulation could stunt Silicon Valley’s AI boom and reduce America’s competitiveness on the global stage. White House AI and crypto adviser David Sachs has been one of the most vocal proponents of a light-touch approach to AI regulation.
“The EO gives your administration the tools to push back the most burdensome and excessive state regulations,” Sachs told Trump during Thursday’s signing ceremony. “We’re not going to put pressure on them at all. We’re going to protect the safety of children, for example.”
The order is in many ways similar to an earlier draft obtained by WIRED but with some key differences. The executive order directs Sachs and Michael Kratsios, the Assistant to the President for Science and Technology, to prepare a legislative recommendation to establish a federal policy framework for AI. One of the new additions is a carve out within this legislative recommendation asking Congress not to preempt state AI laws aimed at protecting children, boosting data center infrastructure, and incentivizing state governments to purchase AI tools.
“We want a central source of approval, and we have great Republican support. I think we probably have the support of the Democrats too, because it’s common sense,” Trump said during the signing ceremony on Thursday. “Every time you make a change, and it might be a very reasonable change, you still don’t have to go to 50 states to get it approved. It centralizes it.”
In the absence of federal regulations, officials in states across the country have stepped up their own investigations and legislation to regulate the use and development of AI. Trump’s executive order specifically calls out some state AI laws – such as Colorado’s SB 24-205, which aims to limit “algorithmic discrimination” in AI models – as attempts to “embed ideological bias.”
Many other state AI laws may also fall under this executive order. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law in September requiring big tech companies to publish the security framework around their AI models. In June, the New York legislature passed a bill that would give the state attorney general the authority to impose civil penalties of up to $30 million against AI developers that fail to meet security standards. That bill is currently sitting on New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s desk awaiting her signature or veto — though she is reportedly considering amendments that could significantly weaken the bill.
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