Ted Cruz bill: States that regulate AI will be cut out of $42B broadband fund

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wants to enforce a 10-year moratorium on AI regulation by making states ineligible for broadband funding if they try to impose any limits on development of artificial intelligence.

The House previously approved a budget bill that contained a fairly straightforward provision to ban state AI regulation for 10 years. Cruz, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, yesterday released budget reconciliation text that takes a different approach to preventing states from regulating AI.

Cruz’s approach may be an attempt to get around the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits the inclusion of “extraneous matter” in budget reconciliation legislation. He wants to make it impossible for states to receive money from the $42 billion Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program if they try to regulate AI. Cruz released a summary that says his bill “forbids states collecting BEAD money from strangling AI deployment with EU-style regulation.”

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