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McClain Delaney, Matsui, Landsman, Carter Urge Senate Leadership to Strike Provision Conditioning BEAD Funding on AI Moratorium

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Congresswoman April McClain Delaney (MD-06), Chair of the New Democrat Coalition's Rural Broadband Task Force; Congresswoman Doris Matsui (CA-07), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology; Congressman Greg Landsman (OH-01); and Congressman Troy Carter (LA-02) led 27 lawmakers in a letter to Senate leadership. The letter urges the Senate to strike a provision in the Senate Commerce Committee's budget reconciliation text that would condition Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding on states acquiescing to a ten-year moratorium on enforcing their own artificial intelligence (AI) laws and regulations.

"The BEAD program is a once-in-a-generation investment to close the digital divide in areas across our nation that have long been overlooked. Congress created BEAD as the product of thoughtful, bipartisan deliberations to expand affordable broadband access to every American," wrote the lawmakers. "In contrast, the reconciliation text's AI moratorium provision represents a reckless and dangerous attempt to force states to forfeit their ability to protect the public from the rapidly escalating risks of unregulated AI and automated decision systems. It is textbook federal overreach."

In the absence of a federal AI regulatory framework, California and other states across the nation are embracing common-sense safeguards that ensure innovation and competition can continue to thrive while protecting the public. As AI tools grow more sophisticated and more widely deployed, these state measures are crucial to building consumer trust and ensuring safety. Yet the moratorium, spearheaded by Republicans, would strip states of their authority to respond to new and evolving AI risks-freezing vital consumer protections for a full decade.

The BEAD program, included as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, provides $42.45 billion to expand high-speed internet access nationwide. It funds planning, infrastructure, and adoption programs in all 50 states and is key to closing the digital divide and getting rural and underserved Americans reliable, high-speed internet coverage. Just last week, the Trump Administration released new guidelines that would substantially delay BEAD investments, forcing states to redo their plans. Conditioning this transformative funding on the surrender of state policymaking authority is deeply troubling-and sets a dangerous precedent.

"Rather than hold the administration accountable for betraying BEAD's commitment to connectivity, the AI moratorium provision would destabilize BEAD further by allowing the administration to claw back long awarded funding from states unwilling to relinquish their role in ensuring safe and responsible AI innovation," the lawmakers continued.

Full text of the letter can be found below or HERE.

Dear Majority Leader Thune, Minority Leader Schumer, Chairman Cruz, and Ranking Member Cantwell:

We write to urge you to strike a deeply dangerous provision in the Senate Commerce Committee's budget reconciliation text that would condition Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) funding on states acquiescing to a ten-year moratorium on state and local enforcement of their own artificial intelligence (AI) laws and regulations.

The BEAD program is a once-in-a-generation investment to close the digital divide in areas across our nation that have long been overlooked. Congress created BEAD as the product of thoughtful, bipartisan deliberations to expand affordable broadband access to every American. And a core tenet of BEAD is empowering our states and local communities to use their on-the-ground knowledge to ensure federal broadband dollars go where they are most needed. In contrast, the reconciliation text's AI moratorium provision represents a reckless and dangerous attempt to force states to forfeit their ability to protect the public from the rapidly escalating risks of unregulated AI and automated decision systems. It is textbook federal overreach.

Linking critical broadband funding-intended to close the digital divide, support rural communities, and provide lifesaving services to our constituents-to the suppression of state-level AI oversight is both coercive and irresponsible. It forces states to choose between expanding internet access and safeguarding their residents from potentially harmful and untested technologies. The notion that states should be barred-even temporarily-from enacting necessary safeguards or responding to emerging harms undermines democratic governance and public trust. A federally imposed moratorium on state AI regulation, especially as a condition for infrastructure funds, strips state and local governments of their ability to respond to the specific, pressing needs and values of their communities.

What's more, this sets a deeply troubling precedent: allowing essential public investments to be weaponized to block legitimate state policymaking on complex and consequential technologies. The consequences of such a trade-off are unacceptable.

The BEAD Program has obligated all the $42.45 billion allocated to states and territories to advance significant capital for broadband expansion. States are at the one-yard line, ready to reach the end zone and get shovels in the ground. But this success is under threat. After nearly six months of freezing BEAD progress, the administration doubled down on sabotaging BEAD with rule changes that would undo the states' hard work,

further delay broadband buildout, drive up costs for consumers, and hamstring states' flexibility to choose the right mix of technologies to provide the most reliable, scalable, and future-proof internet service available to a location. Rather than hold the administration accountable for betraying BEAD's commitment to connectivity, the AI moratorium provision would destabilize BEAD further by allowing the administration to claw back long-awarded funding from states unwilling to relinquish their role in ensuring safe and responsible AI innovation.

We have already seen an outpouring of opposition against the House Republicans' AI moratorium provision, including bipartisan opposition from state attorneys general state legislators, voters, and over 140 consumer advocacy, online safety, and civil rights groups These, and other growing voices, have highlighted how a ten-year hold on state enforcement and regulation exposes Americans to a growing list of harms as AI technologies rapidly evolve and expand across sectors, from healthcare to employment, education, and housing. The resulting regulatory gap from the AI moratorium provision would decimate the good work that states, led by both Democrats and Republicans, have accomplished to set commonsense AI guardrails, including in transparency and online safety.

The Senate Commerce reconciliation text fails to address these bipartisan concerns. Instead, it would further harm Americans by depriving a state of critical broadband funding simply because that state wants to exercise its right to protect its residents from AI-specific harms.

As you are aware, the "Byrd Rule" under the Congressional Budget Act prohibits the inclusion of non-budgetary provisions in reconciliation legislation. The effort to make BEAD funding contingent on a state's decision to suspend any new AI regulations is not only a dangerous and sweeping policy change-it also plainly violates the Byrd rule.

For all these reasons, we strongly urge the Senate to reject the AI moratorium provision and preserve both the intent of the BEAD program and the states' right to regulate emerging technologies in the public interest.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

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