Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) unveiled a sweeping legislative framework Wednesday, TRUMP AMERICA AI Act, a federal bid to dismantle the growing “patchwork” of state-level artificial intelligence (AI) regulations in favor of a single national standard.
The bill, whose acronym stands for The Republic Unifying Meritocratic Performance Advancing Machine Intelligence by Eliminating Regulatory Interstate Chaos Across American Industry (!), mirrors President Donald Trump’s December 2025 executive order. That order signaled a shift toward a “minimally burdensome” federal policy designed to ensure the U.S. maintains global dominance over foreign adversaries.
As the keystone of the draft are two major bipartisan pillars, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the NO FAKES Act.
KOSA would mandate a “duty of care” for platforms, requiring them to protect minors under 17 from addictive features and data exploitation.
The NO FAKES Act targets the “Wild West” of digital replicas, holding companies liable for using an individual’s voice or likeness without consent — a major win for Hollywood and the music industry.
In a move that could reshape the AI industry’s economic model, the bill explicitly states that the unauthorized processing of copyrighted works for training AI models is not “fair use.” This provision sets up a potential conflict with the White House; President Trump previously suggested that requiring AI companies to pay for every training source might be “not doable” for successful innovation.
The act also takes aim at Silicon Valley’s legal bedrock. Blackburn’s proposal calls for sunsetting Section 230, the 1996 provision that shields platforms from liability for third-party content. Furthermore, the bill introduces third-party audits to prevent “anti-conservative bias” and political discrimination within algorithmic systems.
Beyond social protection, the framework addresses infrastructure and labor. Developers must coordinate with the government to ensure massive AI data centers do not drive-up electricity bills for everyday consumers. Federal agencies would be required to study and report on AI-related job displacement.
The bill will also codify the National AI Research Resource (NAIRR), providing students and small businesses with the high-level computing power typically reserved for tech giants.
Although there is bipartisan interest in AI regulation, the bill faces a steep climb. The proposal’s strict copyright stances and the repeal of Section 230 remain divisive among Republicans. Additionally, with a thinning legislative calendar in an election year, securing the necessary Democratic support in the Senate will be a significant challenge.
“Congress must answer the call to establish one federal rulebook,” Blackburn said, deeming the bill a necessity for America to “triumph” in the global AI race.
But some experts decry the bill as tantamount to an “innovate-later” strategy.
“If we’re going to build leading AI models in the United States, we need to champion innovation at each layer of the tech stack,” Kevin Frazier, who leads the AI Innovation and Law Program at the University of Texas School of Law, said in an email. “Instead, Blackburn’s proposal will choke access to data, fail to help young Americans become AI-ready, stifle creative uses of AI, and saddle innovators by imposing vague standards on development and deployment.”
