Republicans Are Trying to Block My State From Regulating AI

Yahoo

4 days ago

I helped write, pass, and protect the nation's first law to regulate artificial intelligence. As part of Donald Trump's tax bill, Republicans in Washington are now trying to overturn our law in Colorado and preempt any other similar efforts around the country — as the need to regulate AI only grows.
The Biden administration formed the U.S. Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute (AISI) in 2023 to identify potential major risks AI could cause. These federal guidelines ushered tech companies to move toward embracing regulation. Understanding the pattern of inaction by Congress, in 2024, Colorado collaborated with lawmakers in more than 30 other states, attempting to pass a new uniform AI regulation.
In the final days of the 2024 Colorado's Legislative Session, I was scrambling to whip votes for what would become the first artificial intelligence regulation in the nation, SB24-205, led by state Senator Robert Rodriguez. We realized an increased use of artificial intelligence, often unseen by the consumer, in important aspects of daily life, like health care, finance, and criminal justice should be a significant concern due to its inherent potential for bias.
AI systems learn from wide datasets, and if these datasets reflect existing societal prejudices — whether in gender stereotypes, historical lending practices, or medical research — the AI will not only replicate but often magnify these biases, potentially leading to discriminatory outcomes. This can result in unfair loan denials, misdiagnoses, wrongful arrests, or limited opportunities for just about anybody.
Republicans' 'One Big Beautiful Bill' — their effort to extend and expand Trump's 2017 tax cuts for the wealthy — has a dangerous provision to prevent states from enacting any AI regulation of any kind for 10 years. The measure would preempt our state law in Colorado, and have the federal government solely handle regulating AI — which it won't do.
That should have you very concerned because the enormous AI growth we've witnessed in just the last couple years will just get exponentially greater over the next decade.
As the Chair of the Joint Technology Committee in Colorado's General Assembly, I know what will happen if Republicans enact such a provision into law. Big corporations and tech bros will get uber rich, and we'll become victims of their AI experiments.
It's not easy convincing colleagues to show interest in a wonky, nuanced topic like AI, especially with the legislative clock running out, but with carefully negotiated amendments and the support of the Colorado AFL-CIO, we mustered enough votes to become the first and only state to pass the new law.
But state lawmakers knew very well that we had to take action because the Feds are notorious for inaction. Colorado's bill and other legislative efforts happening in tandem were supposed to set up a uniform policy any state could adopt to avoid the dreaded 'patchwork of legislative laws' in lieu of federal policy.
After our bill passed in 2024, we created a task force, prepared a report, had stakeholder meetings, and drafted legislation, specifically bill SB25-318, to improve compliance, accountability, and processes. We were intent on making a great law other states could model. When the second Trump administration gutted the Biden-initiated AISI guidelines, the tech industry was no longer interested in collaborating. The 'safety first' approach was lost and the free-for-all attitude was embraced.
On the third to last day of the 2025 session, we tried to push forward a bill to improve the AI law — but it became apparent that the tech industry was intent on derailing our effort.
Led by the venture capitalists, or VCs, and their lobbyists, they created a panic among scapegoats in industries like health care and education and small businesses, to call for us to 'do something about AI.' By 'doing something,' they meant extending the implementation of the current law an additional year so they would have more time for compliance. As a seasoned legislator, I immediately saw this as an obvious lobbying tactic to have more time to create a scheme to prevent the law from ever being enacted.
With my legislative colleagues shaken and convinced by the onslaught of the lobbying efforts, Senator Robert Rodriguez was unable to fend off the implementation deadline change, and he was forced to kill the bill. Unsatisfied, the tech industry was still searching for a way out of any regulation.
The next day, a seemingly minor bill, SB25-322, was on the calendar for debate. It was basically a simple provision the Attorney General needed for a lawsuit. I got called into several meetings with legislative leaders to talk about how to quell the manufactured VC panic. They proposed I become the 'hero' by running an amendment to SB25-322 to again attempt to push out implementation of our original law on AI regulations.
I am no hero to big corporations. I fight for the underdog, the worker, and everyday citizens who don't have billions of dollars to manipulate the legislative process. I said no to their proposal and offered a two month extension to give us time in 2026 to try another bill. That wasn't acceptable, so I went to war. I was not going to let anyone attach an amendment, and if they did, I'd kill the bill.
The unwritten rule in the state House and the Senate is the midnight deadline. Every day stops at midnight. Nobody knows what actually happens if we don't end work a minute after 12 a.m. and nobody has ever attempted to find out. The penultimate day of the session embodies the expression, 'If it weren't for the last minute, nothing would get done.' We finally got to SB25-322 at 10:40pm. They called for a vote to limit debate for one hour, which passed.
A representative quickly attached the amendment I swore to fight. If I filibustered for the hour, I still needed to fill up the remaining 20 minutes to kill the bill. I blathered for the whole hour and now it was 11:40pm. When time was up, they were successful in getting their amendment on the bill, and the bill passed. Most people don't know that the work of our legislative debate is not complete until we adopt the Committee of the Whole Report which we endearingly call, the COW.
The COW is intended for fixing mistakes. It has been often used nefariously. I don't take this lightly, but this was my final strategy for success. Using amendments I ran during my filibuster, I would say the bill actually didn't pass. In order to stop me, the Majority Leader moved for Rule 16 which calls the 'question.' This means that anything and everything that was about to go down would be done without any debate. It would allow them to just do quick votes on all of it, and 15 minutes was sufficient time. I felt a moment of despair. My efforts would all be for naught if Rule 16 passed. Then, we voted, and it failed. I was now able to bring my amendments, run the clock to midnight, and kill the bill.
Just seconds before the clock hit midnight, I was interrupted by the Majority Leader to call to adjourn the day's work. The bill was dead. I had saved the country's only AI law from certain demise. The Speaker was angry. There was a buzz of puzzlement and excitement. In the later days and weeks, those who paid attention recalled the events as legislative heroism.
Do I believe that Congress will ever pass meaningful AI regulation? No. There is a lack of courage to stand up for what's right, especially when big money gets involved. But it can be done. I know, because I did it. Unfortunately, not all elected officials have the intestinal fortitude to filibuster their own party to do what's right. So next time there's an election, do your homework so you can distinguish between the true public servants and the self-serving politicians.
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