More than a month past their deadline, federal agencies have failed to deliver on critical steps in President Trump's effort to curb state AI regulation, casting doubt on whether the administration can enforce its deregulatory agenda.
Three major provisions outlined in a December executive order were supposed to be completed by March 11. None have been publicly announced or delivered.
The Federal Trade Commission was tasked with issuing guidance on how consumer protection law applies to AI, including circumstances where federal rules could override state laws that "alter truthful outputs." The Commerce Department meanwhile faced dual assignments: evaluate all state AI laws, identify which ones are "onerous," and flag them to the Justice Department's AI Litigation Task Force. Commerce also needed to establish rules linking broadband funding to state AI policies, potentially defunding states with regulations the administration opposes.
The Federal Communications Commission has a separate mandate to develop a national AI reporting and transparency standard designed to preempt state requirements, though that deadline doesn't arrive for 90 days after states are identified as problematic.
White House officials offered reassurance rather than explanations. Spokesperson Liz Huston said the administration has "implemented many bold and successful policy initiatives" and promised more progress ahead. An unnamed White House official told reporters the FTC's policy statement would arrive "very soon." The FTC's own director of public affairs echoed the timeline in a brief email. Commerce and the FCC did not respond to requests for comment.
Matthew Ferraro, a regulatory partner at Crowell & Moring, noted the administration's rhetorical commitment to deregulation masks a more complicated picture. "The Trump administration is still very much trying to find its footing when it comes to regulating AI," he said.
The delays arrive as tech companies and state lawmakers wait to see which state AI laws the DOJ task force will target for litigation. The White House has already begun intervening directly with Republican state legislatures to reshape AI bills before they become law, a piecemeal approach that sidesteps the need for a coherent federal policy.
In the broader picture, the administration's strategy is emerging as ad-hoc and reactive rather than systematic. Last month, the White House did release a legislative recommendation for a uniform federal AI framework that would preempt state laws, but the document reads as a four-page list of priorities rather than a concrete blueprint Congress could immediately pass. House Republicans this week unveiled separate data privacy bills and signaled AI legislation will follow, though bridging the administration's ambitions with bipartisan congressional support remains unclear.
Agencies face genuine challenges. Crafting novel AI policies on a compressed timeline, especially ones that survive legal scrutiny, is difficult. But the repeated delays suggest the push to dismantle state-level AI regulation, once flagged as a top Trump administration priority, is moving nowhere fast.
Author James Rodriguez: "Without concrete agency action or congressional movement, this whole effort to erase state AI laws looks increasingly like talk without teeth."
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