By Governor Susana Martinez
America is in a defining race for global leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). The outcome will impact everything from national security and economic prosperity to the values embedded in tomorrow’s technologies. As China pours unprecedented resources into dominating the AI frontier, the United States faces a pivotal decision: will we clear the runway for innovation through a national innovation strategy, or will we let a blizzard of state-level regulations ground our AI ambitions?
That’s why a 10-year federal moratorium on state-specific AI mandates that do not threaten the public’s protection under the law isn’t just smart policy, but a national imperative.
Over the past three years, state legislatures have unleashed an avalanche of AI-related legislation. In 2023, around 200 AI bills were introduced across U.S. states. By 2024, that number had more than tripled to 635, with 99 signed into law. This year, we’re already past 1,000 proposed bills and counting. Many of these laws are well-intentioned, but their combined effect is a series of conflicting and heavy-handed mandates that risk stifling AI development in its infancy.
One example: California’s SB 1047, which would have imposed sweeping liability penalties on AI developers of advanced models. Governor Gavin Newsom rightly vetoed the bill, expressing concerns that it could hinder innovation by imposing overly broad regulations even on low-risk AI applications. What’s worse, many state bills are patterned after the EU’s AI Act, which has been criticized as “a blueprint for hindering AI development.”
To address this threat from states, House Republicans have proposed a decade-long moratorium on state-level AI laws. Under the proposal, states would be prohibited from imposing technology-specific mandates like design, data handling, or documentation rules, but would still retain the ability to enforce core legal protections, such as anti-discrimination laws, consumer rights statutes, and civil rights enforcement. This is a fair compromise that protects consumers but doesn’t unintentionally hinder America’s ability to compete globally.
There’s a strong historical precedent for this approach. In the 1990s, Congress recognized that the early internet would be strangled by a jumble of “unpredictable and overly burdensome” state regulations that would hamper the growth of e-commerce. In response, it passed the Internet Tax Freedom Act, a 10-year ban on state and local internet-specific taxes. This gave U.S. tech the space to grow, fostered a cohesive national digital economy, and helped launch one of the greatest periods of innovation and entrepreneurship in American history.
We need the same playbook now—this time for AI.
While America debates patchwork laws, China is pressing forward with a bold national AI strategy. It is investing $1.5 trillion in AI development by 2030, AI education is now mandatory in its public schools, and its universities have launched thousands of new AI degree programs.
Beijing is also pouring hundreds of billions in AI infrastructure, expanding energy capacity, modernizing transmission lines, and securing vast amounts of training data — all while aggressively exporting both open-source and closed-source AI tools across the world to gain market share.
Because technology is the backbone of everything in modern society, our race with China is far greater than just hardware and software primacy. Instead, it’s a winner-take-all contest over which country’s values will underpin the next generation of global infrastructure. If America leads, AI can be open, safe, and aligned with democratic norms. If China dominates, the result will be a digital future of centralized control, mass surveillance, and algorithmic repression, which then infects the technologies that follow AI.
To lead, America needs a full-scale national innovation strategy, led at the federal level, that unleashes private-sector investment, expands energy and data infrastructure, modernizes outdated laws, rapidly deploys trusted AI at home and abroad, and builds a skilled workforce so we outcompete China, protect our values, and win the race for the future.
This national strategy will ensure that we innovate at full throttle, not spend the next decade struggling to overcome a legal maze of state-by-state red tape. The proposed moratorium would give our innovators critical room to build, our policymakers time to understand fast-moving technologies, and our country a fighting chance to shape the future.
Just as America pioneered the internet, we can and must lead in AI. But leadership starts by clearing the obstacles from our own path. A strategically applied 10-year moratorium on state AI mandates isn’t a step back—it’s a leap forward that will convert our generation’s moonshot moment into a lasting security, prosperity, and American leadership.
Susana Martinez is a former governor of New Mexico and current Board Member of the American Edge Project.