WHEREAS, the recently passed U.S. House budget bill, H.R. 1 “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” includes a provision that imposes a 10-year ban on states and localities from limiting or regulating the use of artificial intelligence (AI) not only in educational settings but also across all sectors of public life; and

WHEREAS, this provision represents a blatant concession to tech industry interests, prioritizing profit over individual privacy, public safety, accountability, and state sovereignty; and

WHEREAS, unregulated AI threatens student privacy by collecting and commercializing sensitive data, undermines the human connection essential to quality education, and introduces serious risks to civil liberties, employment, and public trust when deployed without oversight in areas such as healthcare, law enforcement, finance, and government services; and

WHEREAS, leading AI experts – including Nobel Laureate Geoffrey Hinton, widely regarded as the “godfather of AI” – have warned that artificial intelligence, if left unchecked, poses a profound risk to humanity itself; and

WHEREAS, more than 200 bipartisan state legislators and numerous state attorneys general have publicly opposed any federal effort to restrict states from regulating the use of AI technologies within their jurisdictions; and

WHEREAS, the 2024 Republican Party of Texas Platform affirms the following:

“Limiting government power to those items enumerated in the United States and Texas Constitutions.” (Principle 4)

“State Sovereignty: Pursuant to Article 1, Section 1, of the Texas Constitution, the federal government has impaired our right of local self-government. Therefore, federally mandated legislation that infringes upon the 10th Amendment rights of Texas shall be ignored, opposed, refused, and nullified.” (excerpt from Plank 20 – State Sovereignty)

“Artificial Intelligence Protections: We believe that each person is the rightful owner of his/her name, likeness, voice, knowledge, opinions, etc., and we support the individual’s right to protect his/her identity, name, image, data, information, and likeness from being collected or otherwise used by data brokers, or artificial intelligence applications without written consent. Each person has the right to know who is collecting information, when and how the information is being collected, and how the information is being used or sold. Each person has the right to opt out of any data collection or data use.” (Plank 57 – Privacy, Information Freedom, Internet); now

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Republican Party of Texas strongly condemns any federal provision that prohibits or penalizes state or local governments for enacting regulations on the development, deployment, or use of artificial intelligence in any setting; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we urge all members of the Texas Congressional delegation – especially our U.S. Senators – to remove Sec. 43201(C) from H.R. 1 (as passed by the U.S. House on May 22, 2025) that restricts the rights of Texans to govern the use of AI in ways that safeguard our people, our values, and our constitutional freedoms.