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A 2025 U.S.-focused policy brief from the Bipartisan Policy Center, relevant for understanding the domestic regulatory landscape and federal-state tensions shaping AI governance frameworks.
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Importance: 42/100policy briefanalysis
Summary
The Bipartisan Policy Center outlines eight policy lessons for navigating U.S. AI governance, focusing on the federal-state preemption debate. It argues that federal preemption of state AI laws will only succeed if paired with clear national standards, warning against 'preempt first, legislate later' approaches that leave regulatory vacuums.
Key Points
- •Preemption debates hinge on federal standards: stripping state authority without a replacement framework drew near-unanimous Senate opposition.
- •Broad preemption without a federal framework (e.g., 10-year moratoriums) faces bipartisan pushback; paired guidance on privacy and risk is needed.
- •Any AI moratorium legislation must clearly define scope, duration, and carveouts to avoid ambiguity and legal challenges.
- •The U.S. currently has a fragmented patchwork of state AI laws—hundreds enacted in one year alone—seen as threatening national competitiveness.
- •BPC recommends pairing limited preemption with clear standards on privacy, impact assessments, transparency, and enforcement mechanisms.
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More from Bipartisan Policy Center
The future of American AI governance is at a crossroads as states and the federal government wrestle over who should regulate AI and the appropriate scope of such regulation. Currently, most AI regulation in the United States occurs in the states, with thousands of [AI laws introduced in state legislatures](https://www.ncsl.org/financial-services/artificial-intelligence-legislation-database) and hundreds enacted this year alone. This has created a patchwork of laws and regulations that many see as harmful to the country’s national competitiveness and ability to remain on the technological frontier.
After a failed attempt at a [federal moratorium](https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1191/vote_119_1_00363.htm) on state AI lawmaking earlier this year, policymakers in Congress have sought to mitigate or fully preempt the state law patchwork and give themselves more time—and pressure—to develop a national framework. Some members of Congress have proposed [regulatory flexibility](https://www.commerce.senate.gov/services/files/032DEA9D-0C56-41B4-A155-53FFC3987350) for companies caught in the state patchwork. The White House outlined federal priorities in its [AI Action Plan,](https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Americas-AI-Action-Plan.pdf) and a draft executive order recently proposed [potential litigation](https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editorialfiles/2025/11/20/EO.pdf) against state AI laws.
The Bipartisan Policy Center is dedicated to contributing resources and scaling ongoing efforts to educate policymakers and the public on AI, including its foundations, emerging use cases, and policy landscape. Through the [AI 101 initiative](http://www.ai101.org/) launched in 2024, BPC has briefed and engaged hundreds of Hill staffers to build stronger AI literacy foundations. Earlier this year, BPC submitted [recommendations](https://bipartisanpolicy.org/testimony-letter/development-of-an-artificial-intelligence-ai-action-plan/#:~:text=BPC%20recognizes%2C%20identifies%2C%20and%20encourages,a%20DOE%20AI%20oversight%20strategy.) to the White House and examined the administration’s AI Action Plan release in its “ [From Vision to Action](https://bipartisanpolicy.org/article/from-vision-to-action-aligning-tech-policy-and-innovation-within-the-ai-action-plan/)” series. Below, we offer eight lessons for the future of AI governance to inform continued efforts by state and federal policymakers.
**Policy Considerations Shaping the Future of AI Governance**
- **Preemption debates will hinge on federal standards.** When the Senate voted 99-1 to strip a federal AI moratorium from the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, many senators objected to not only the duration of the moratorium but also preemption without replacement. Organizations and policymakers
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