Senate passes amendment to strip ban on AI regulations as ‘big, beautiful bill’ flails

The Senate early Tuesday voted to quash an effort to impose a 10-year moratorium on state regulation of artificial intelligence.

The vote removed the AI provision from President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” that Senate Republicans are struggling to pass.

The Senate began a series of nonstop votes on the bill around 9:30 a.m. Monday morning and as of 6 a.m. Tuesday was still considering amendments and dilatory motions.

GOP leaders worked through the night to sway fence-sitting members to vote for the bill, but have not yet locked down the 50 votes they will need to pass it with Vice President J.D. Vance available to break a tie.

The AI regulation ban that senators stripped from the bill has changed several times.

It started in the House as a full moratorium on state regulation of AI for the next decade. The Senate had to amend it to comply with rules for the budget reconciliation process, so initially crafted a proposal that said states must adopt the ban if they wanted to continue receiving federal broadband funding.

The most recent version and the one ultimately stripped from the bill was a watered-down proposal. Instead of forcing states to adopt the ban,