Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) released a 269-page discussion draft on June 4 that would convert two years of state AI lawmaking into a federal ceiling, freezing new state development rules through December 2029 while imposing semi-annual audits on the largest frontier labs.

The Great American Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026 arrives with four additional co-sponsors split across the aisle: Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.), and Erin Houchin (R-Ind.). Developers with more than $500 million in prior-year gross revenue would’ve to publish a catastrophic-risk framework, submit to audits by NIST-licensed Independent Verification Organizations, and face penalties of up to $1 million per day. “Catastrophic risk” is defined around 50-plus deaths or injuries or $1 billion in property damage. The Center for AI Standards and Innovation gets a formal role, and the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 is extended through fiscal 2035.

The preemption is narrower than headlines suggest: it hits laws “specifically regulating the development” of frontier models, leaving use and deployment regimes intact. California’s AB 2013 training-data disclosure law and part of SB 942’s watermarking rules are named explicitly by Trahan’s office as casualties. Colorado’s law, nearing effect, sits in the same crosshairs.

That trade is the whole political fight. Brad Carson of Americans for Responsible Innovation called preemption a “generational mistake.” House Democratic AI Commission co-chairs, including Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), said the draft “cannot serve as the basis for productive dialogue.” Brendan Steinhauser of the Alliance for Secure AI endorsed the catastrophic-risk architecture and rejected the ceiling.

Trahan’s own framing concedes the structural bet: “preempt, but only if we’re setting the strongest possible federal standard.” The December 2029 sunset is pitched as a forcing function, the same device that produced the 2018 FISA reauthorization fights and the recurring Section 230 hearings. Forcing functions in Congress tend to expire quietly and get extended.

Sources

Sources