Flipping through the day’s news feed on this 6th day of a sweltering Midwest heat dome that is pushing the mercury to 99°F and a heat index of 105°F. We have 3 more days before the heat breaks.
Every day, there is a call to action in my inbox. There has been a lot of talk about what is in the “big beautiful bill” in the halls of Congress as it passes from House to Senate and back to the House. Collectively, we are holding our breaths between social media posts asking constituents to contract their elected representative and the day this abomination crawls from the carcass of our dying Democracy.
Whether it is the tax breaks for the wealthy, the threats to the Rule of Law, the reductions in social safety nets, the assault and sale of public lands, or impact on clean energy, this bill is anything but beautiful. One troubling aspect is that the bill impedes states’ rights to regulate artificial intelligence (AI)— a major gift to Big Tech from the federal government at citizens’ expense.
Even supporters of Trump and the Big Beautiful Bill like Rep Braxton Mitchel of Montana have reservations about the implications of unregulated AI. In an email to the Daily Montanan, Mitchel wrote, “We shouldn’t be blocking states from protecting citizens against surveillance abuse, censorship, and tech-driven manipulation. I’ll keep standing for individual liberty and limited government, with or without a moratorium. Hopefully it’s stripped out in the Senate or when it goes back over to the House.”
In a letter, a group of 140 organizations wrote to the leaders of both parties in the House of Representatives, asking them to reject the 10-year ban. “This moratorium would mean that even if a company deliberately designs an algorithm that causes foreseeable harm — regardless of how intentional or egregious the misconduct or how devastating the consequences — the company making that bad tech would be unaccountable to lawmakers and the public,” the letter read.
One of our railroaders had this to say about the 10 year state moratorium on regulating AI.
“I’ve spent nearly 20 years watching rail carriers use federal preemption as a shield to kill basic #railsafety legislation in Carson City. Every time we brought forward a bill; whether it was about crew size, train length, inspections, lighting, or defect detectors, the answer was the same. “You can’t regulate us. That falls under federal jurisdiction.” And more often than not, they got away with it. Not because the proposals were flawed, but because preemption has become the default excuse for doing nothing.
Now Big Tech is reaching for the same playbook. The proposed AI moratorium in the Senate, quietly tucked into reconciliation language, doesn’t just delay oversight. It removes the right of states to act altogether. It would silence local governments and shut out workers and communities who are trying to hold AI deployments accountable; whether in surveillance, automation, or workplace safety.
They call this approach “uniformity.” In Washington, that word rarely means fairness. It usually means removing guardrails and giving corporations a free pass. It means consolidating power at the top and telling the rest of us to trust that it will be used wisely.
The Teamsters are right to call it out for what it is. This isn’t about creating clarity or consistency. It is about removing opposition. It hands Big Tech a blank check and tells states, workers, and families that their voices no longer matter.
#Raillabor has already seen where this road goes. We were told federal preemption would protect consistency and safety. What it protected were profits. What it prevented was accountability. And what we got in return were longer trains, fewer inspections, and dangerous working conditions.
Whether we are talking about trains or artificial intelligence, the pattern is the same. Strip local control, shield industry from scrutiny, and tell the public it’s for their own good.
Workers deserve better. Accountability begins at the ground level. It starts with people who know the job, know the risks, and aren’t afraid to speak up. If Congress will not protect us, states must have the power to do it. And if they take that power away, then it is not uniformity. It is corporate control.”
In a post on X, the Teamsters write “That means no state oversight of driverless trucks, AI surveillance, or job-killing automation. It’s a power grab by Big Tech — and a direct threat to workers and states’ rights.”
BMWED is also concerned about automation and automated inspection. They’ve posted a video explaining why inspections by humans are important.
Sadly, some members of Congress have manufactured confusion, misleading some to think the provision is tied to if a state accepts money for rural broadband– “… a plain-text reading of the Senate tax and budget draft reveals a standalone, 10-year federal preemption that immediately prohibits or nullifies most state and local regulation of AI systems in interstate commerce once the bill becomes law. This means that the moratorium is not conditioned on whether a state or local government receives or seeks BEAD (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program) funds.“
Nonetheless, you can find the industry lobbyists pushing in support of this language for the carriers they represent. (Video with AAR pushing the AI tech in railroading at a Congressional hearing.)
Welcome, but surprising pushback came from Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Josh Hawley: “Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has been particularly vocal. “I will not vote for any bill that destroys federalism and takes away states’ rights,” she told reporters this month.
The working class is going to be stuck in multiple ways if this passes in the bill.
Not only will workers and communities have zero safety nets to protect them at home or on their jobs from the compounding impacts of AI, but we will also be footing the bill for the energy consumption that AI needs to work and evolve. Humans will be paying the cost in terms of the dirtier fuels burned to keep the processors turning, fueling a hotter climate and more costly utility bills. But I guess AI doesn’t have to worry about heat stroke as long as it can keep spitting out silly images and rearranged facts.
Please feel free to share our handout, Automation: the Big Lie.
