Following Calls from Sanders, AI Regulatory Moratorium Removed from One, Big, Beautiful Bill

LITTLE ROCK, AR - On July 1, 2025 Earlier morning, the United States Senate voted to remove the artificial intelligence (AI) regulatory moratorium from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill in a 99-1 vote. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders expressed her strong support for this decision, aligning herself with fellow leaders in their efforts to hold Big Tech accountable and remove this provision that was added by Congress to deny states’ rights to defend our citizens from completely unregulated AI.

“This is a monumental win for state leaders, President Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill, and the American people. We will now be able to protect our kids from the harms of completely unregulated AI. I want to give a special thank you to Senator Marsha Blackburn for her leadership in getting this vote through,” said Governor Sanders.

Last week, The Washington Post published “America Can’t Wait 10 Years to Regulate AI,” an op-ed by Governor Sanders on how states are leading the way on smart AI protections and the dangers if Congress prevented those regulations from going into effect for 10 years. 

Additionally, Governor Sanders led a group of 17 Republican governors to send a letter last week to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson to remove the 10-year AI regulatory moratorium in the One, Big, Beautiful Bill. The letter addressed some of the many regulations and protections states have put in place to protect their citizens from the misuse of AI.

This year, Governor Sanders signed Act 927, creating basic AI intellectual property protections, Act 159, protecting Arkansans from the nonconsensual use of their image and likeness in AI, and Act 977, expanding Arkansas’ child sexual abuse materials law to include materials created through AI. Thanks to the removal of the AI regulatory moratorium from the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, those laws can go into effect.