White House Pauses Draft Order Cutting Some BEAD Money to States With Onerous AI Laws
The White House is pausing plans for President Donald Trump to finalize a draft executive order that would direct NTIA to potentially curtail non-deployment funding from the $42.5 billion BEAD program for states that the administration determines to have AI laws that are overly burdensome (see 2511190069), lobbyists told us. The Trump administration had appeared ready to formally issue the order Friday but was aware of renewed interest among some congressional Republicans in pursuing a legislative preemption of states’ AI laws. The White House didn't comment.
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Meanwhile, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) opposed the draft order Friday. “We're going to be rolling out some good policies on AI,” he said during a news conference in Crystal River, Florida. “You know, there's some people saying, ‘Well, the federal government should just take over and not let the states do anything.’ I reject that.” FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez and the top Democrats on the House and Senate Communications subcommittees have also blasted the proposal, which would direct the FCC to consider adopting a national standard for AI models that preempts state laws (see 2511200057)
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) criticized the draft order Thursday night as well. New York “passed some of the nation’s strongest AI safeguards to protect kids, workers and consumers, [but now the Trump administration] is threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in broadband funding meant for rural upstate communities, all to shield big corporations from taking basic steps to prevent potential harm from AI,” she said.