A federal proposal that would ban states and local governments from regulating AI for up to 10 years could soon be signed into law, as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and other lawmakers work to secure its inclusion into a GOP megabill — which the Senate is voting on Monday — ahead of a key July 4 deadline.

Those in favor — including OpenAI’s Sam Altman, Anduril’s Palmer Luckey, and a16z’s Marc Andreessen — argue that a “patchwork” of AI regulation among states would stifle American innovation at a time when the race to beat China is heating up.

Critics include most Democrats, many Republicans, Anthropic’s CEO Dario Amodei, labor groups, AI safety nonprofits, and consumer rights advocates. They warn that this provision would block states from passing laws that protect consumers from AI harms and would effectively allow powerful AI firms to operate without much oversight or accountability.

On Friday, a group of 17 Republican governors wrote to Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has advocated for a “light touch” approach to AI regulation, and House Speaker Mike Johnson calling for the so-called “AI moratorium” to be stripped from the budget reconciliation bill, per Axios.

The provision was squeezed into the bill, nicknamed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” in May. It was initially designed to prohibit states from “[enforcing] any law or regulation regulating [AI] models, [AI] systems, or automated decision systems” for a decade.

However, over the weekend, Cruz and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), who has also criticized the bill, agreed to shorten the pause on state-based AI regulation to five years.