5 days ago
Marjorie Taylor Greene split with Trump over 'big beautiful bill'
Elon Musk has loudly been bashing the bill online, calling it a pork-filled abomination while Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has also skewered the bill for growing the debt. Since voting for president Donald Trump's signature 'big, beautiful bill' legislative package at the end of May, Greene has since renounced her support for the package. In a stunning reversal, the Georgia Republican has said that a portion of the massive bill that would force states to cede power to the federal government when it comes to artificial intelligence is so rotten that she no longer can support it.
Now as the bill is before the Senate, Greene is urging lawmakers in the upper-chamber to take out the AI regulations. 'This is an incredible clause, and I hope the Senate fixes it, and it's so important, and I believe it's so important that it's worth saying that if it doesn't come out, I don't think I can vote for it,' Greene told the Daily Mail in a phone call Wednesday. Her issue is not with the president or GOP leadership though, she claims.
'It's incredibly important to clarify that there's no daylight between President Trump and I,' she added, noting that the bill should be about securing the border and cutting taxes and not about regulating how states oversee artificial intelligence. Greene has already told the White House's Office of Legislative Affairs and Speaker Mike Johnson about her opposition to the AI regulations. The bill specifically prohibits states from 'limiting, restricting, or otherwise regulating artificial intelligence models, artificial intelligence systems, or automated decision systems entered into interstate commerce' for the next ten years.
Taking her grievances to the House floor, Greene delivered an impassioned speech about her opposition to the bill on Wednesday. Her broadside is the latest in a GOP civil war that is brewing over the measure. 'This clause would take away state rights to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years,' Greene shared on the floor. She explained how the federal legislation would hamper state's ability to self-regulate the nascent technology, posing a threat to federalism. 'I think federalism is something that we must always protect, and I warn against the dangers of protecting a tech industry where we have no idea the future of what this industry will hold.'
MTG reasoned that since AI is 'rapidly developing' it is unwise to shackle state's ability to regulate the space. 'When we look to the future, we cannot take away states rights to regulate or make laws to protect the people in their state, or to regulate businesses that operate in their state. That would be destroying the very foundation of this country, which is federalism,' she added. 'We must always limit federal power and protect state power.' If the GOP goes ahead with the bill and its AI measure, the GOP and Trump could open themselves up to attacks over federalism.
'I don't want to be the Congress that destroys federalism, and I don't think President Trump wants to be accused of that as well,' she told the Daily Mail. Greene's opposition to the measure comes as it has faced increasing scrutiny from Republicans. Though the Georgia Republican voted for the measure when it passed out of the House on May 22, she admitted that she did not read the entire bill, which is over 1,000 pages. The shocking admission came as she announced her opposition to the measure unless the AI-related provision is taken out. That opposition may prove to be a headache for GOP leadership as the bill may get sent back to the lower chamber after the Senate makes revisions to the package.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (pictured), R-S.D., and Trump have said they want the Senate to finish tweaking the Big Beautiful Bill Act before July 4th. Once the upper chamber finishes its edits, the bill will likely head back to the House for them to sign off on the changes. This is politically tenuous for Speaker Mike Johnson, who was able to just barely pass the measure the first go around. The measure passed 215 - 214 - 1, meaning if Johnson loses a single vote, the entire Trump-backed package is at risk. If the bill needs a second vote in the House, MTG's opposition could mean that the bill won't move on to the president's desk for final authorization.
Other conservatives in the House have also expressed frustration with the bill, including many dissatisfied House Freedom Caucus members, who generally want deeper cuts to social programs like Social Security and Medicaid. If the Senate does not scrape the AI measure before sending the bill back to the House for another vote, MTG says she will withhold her support for it. 'With this warning, I urge all of my colleagues that when the House gets to vote on the one big, beautiful bill again after it leaves the Senate, that we make sure we protect federalism,' Greene said Wednesday. 'At the same time [I] urge our colleagues in the Senate to pull this clause out of the one big, beautiful bill,' she concluded.
