Fight Federal Preemption to Preserve Local and State Authority over AI Regulation

AI regulation goes hand in hand with data center regulation to ensure that if data centers are built, they cannot do so in service of technology that harms people. AI systems are increasingly deployed in ways that expand the power of bosses, landlords, and corporations at the expense of workers, tenants, and everyday people. As the data center boom serves to rapidly accelerate AI use across all sectors of our society, we need urgent actions to protect the public and hold tech companies accountable to the communities affected by these technologies, particularly communities of color, immigrants, and poor and working-class people. 

And yet, the federal government has repeatedly attempted to block states from passing laws regulating AI,1 encroaching upon local and state authority and endangering millions of people. The administration has also broadcast its desire to preempt state and local authority to pave the way for AI data center expansion.2 

Federal policymakers can protect against this administration’s attempts to preempt state and local power and sidestep congressional authority in service of AI data centers.

  1. Cecilia Kang, “Defeat of a 10-Year Ban on State A.I. Laws Is a Blow to Tech Industry,” New York Times, July 1, 2025, https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/01/us/politics/state-ai-laws.html; and White House, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, Executive Orders, December 11, 2025, https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy. ↩︎
  2. Under the December 2025 Executive Order, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, the administration plans to prepare a legislative recommendation for a uniform federal policy framework for AI that preempts state and local laws. This legislative recommendation will include preemption recommendations around “generally applicable permitting reforms” for AI data center infrastructure. See Executive Order 14365, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence; and Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure. ↩︎