Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) on June 4 released a 269-page discussion draft of the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act, a bipartisan vehicle that pairs binding safety obligations on frontier labs with a three-year freeze on state AI development laws. It’s the most substantive federal AI framework Congress has produced, and the preemption clause is already the fight.

The bill, joined by Reps. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.), Scott Franklin (R-Fla.), Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), is organized into four titles covering Frontier AI Governance, Workforce, Cybersecurity, and Research, Development, and International Cooperation, per Tech Policy Press. “Large frontier developers” are defined by a $500 million prior-year gross revenue threshold. The cybersecurity title also extends the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 through fiscal year 2035.

The politics are the giveaway. The Senate killed a 10-year preemption moratorium in the One Big Beautiful Bill 99-1, with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) leading the strike. A three-year version, with safety obligations attached, is the negotiating residue of that defeat. Trahan’s office published an accompanying document naming California AB 2013 and part of the Transparency in Frontier AI Act among laws that would be displaced.

Safety advocates aren’t buying the trade. Brendan Steinhauser, CEO of the Alliance for Secure AI, said the federal framework “does not justify preempting states’ ability to pass their own AI safeguards.” ARI launched Massachusetts ads this week urging Trahan to oppose any state-law ban. Colorado AG Phil Weiser is among 22 state AGs (plus DC) who’ve pushed back on parallel FCC preemption efforts, and a December 2025 Trump executive order already tied BEAD funds to state AI rules.

Trahan, for her part, left the door open. “If there are genuine ambiguities in the text that could swallow state consumer protection law or civil rights enforcement, that’s a problem I want to fix.”

Sources

Sources