As part of House Republicans’ must-pass budget reconciliation bill, lawmakers just snuck in a ten-year federal preemption of state-level artificial intelligence laws — effectively nullifying all local efforts to regulate the explosive spread of AI technology.

The move would be a major win for Big Tech, which has argued that state regulation is hamstringing their ability to do business.

Generative artificial intelligence giant OpenAI previously included federal AI preemption and “ensuring the freedom to innovate” on a recent policy wish list for the Trump administration. They criticized state and local laws as a “patchwork” of regulation which “risks bogging down innovation” and “undermining America’s leadership position.”