Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said on Tuesday that she regrets voting to pass House Republicans’ reconciliation bill over a provision that prevents states from regulating the use of artificial intelligence.
“I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there,” Greene wrote on X. “When the OBBB comes back to the House for approval after Senate changes, I will not vote for it with this in it.”
The conservative lawmaker, whose office did not respond to a request for comment, said she was unaware of its inclusion in the legislation, and said she was against it because it stripped back states’ power. Other Republican lawmakers have expressed similar concerns, including senators who are still considering the reconciliation bill on their side of the Capitol.
Some of the provision’s opponents have promised to try to kill it in the Senate. That includes Sen. Josh Hawley, who on Tuesday told NOTUS that he welcomed Greene’s belated opposition.
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“I mean yes, that’s great,” Hawley told NOTUS when asked about Greene’s post. “But hopefully we can kill it in the Senate.”
The measure would prevent states from enforcing new laws regulating AI for the next 10 years. It has support from both House and Senate Republicans, and its proponents say it will make it easier to institute national standards for AI policy instead of a patchwork of legislation.
“I like local control, but in this particular case with regard to AI, it simply is not workable. You’ve got to have a national policy on it,” Sen. Mike Rounds, a supporter of the measure, told NOTUS. “The states really are the laboratories, but in this particular case, those laboratories are getting pushed a little bit on the hard side because Congress has not moved forward.”
Some lawmakers cast doubt over the provision’s chances of surviving the Senate’s Byrd Rule, which limits what can be added to a reconciliation bill strictly to budgetary policy. Several lawmakers said the decision from the Senate parliamentarian could come as soon as next week.
“I don’t know that it’ll make our Senate rules, but if it doesn’t happen this time, we can always introduce it as a stand-alone bill,” Sen. Bernie Moreno, who supports the provision, told NOTUS.
Sen. Ted Cruz, another prominent supporter of the provision, told NOTUS that he is not too concerned about Greene’s opposition.
“It’s a terrific policy, it’s something I have vocally advocated,” Cruz said. “It will surely be challenged under the Byrd Rule, and it’s not clear if it would survive that challenge in the Senate or not.”
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Samuel Larreal is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.
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