Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence: Difference between revisions

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<div style="font-size:1.15em;"><strong>Law &amp; policy information</strong></div>
<div style="font-size:1.15em;"><strong>Law &amp; policy information</strong></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Name</strong><br />Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Federal Register|date=December 16, 2025}}</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Name</strong><br />Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence<ref>[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Federal Register, December 16, 2025.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Jurisdiction</strong><br />United States — Federal<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Federal Register|date=December 16, 2025}}</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Jurisdiction</strong><br />United States — Federal<ref>[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Federal Register, December 16, 2025.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Instrument type</strong><br />Executive order<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Federal Register|date=December 16, 2025}}</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Instrument type</strong><br />Executive order<ref>[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Federal Register, December 16, 2025.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Bill / legal citation</strong><br />Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Federal Register|date=December 16, 2025}}</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Bill / legal citation</strong><br />Executive Order 14365; 90 FR 58499<ref>[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Federal Register, December 16, 2025.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Legislative or adoption status</strong><br />See the dated record below.</div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Legislative or adoption status</strong><br />Signed December 11, 2025; directs further federal actions.<ref>[https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/ Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Executive Order 14365, December 11, 2025, §§ 1–9.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Effective dates</strong><br />See the timeline and source documents below.</div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Effective dates</strong><br />Deadlines measured from December 11, 2025, except the FCC trigger; see Requirements.<ref>[https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/ Executive Order 14365], §§ 3–7.</ref></div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Last source verification</strong><br />Not recorded as a single article-wide date; see the dated source notes.</div>
<div style="padding:0.55em 0; border-bottom:1px solid #e0e5eb;"><strong>Last source verification</strong><br />September 12, 2026 — original instrument and January 9 DOJ memorandum checked; not a certification of every later implementation step.</div>
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== Overview ==
== Overview ==
'''Executive Order 14365''', titled "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," was signed by President Donald Trump on December 11, 2025, and published in the Federal Register on December 16, 2025 (Doc. No. 2025-23092, pages 58499–58501).<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Federal Register|date=December 16, 2025}}</ref> The order established federal policy to promote a nationally uniform, minimally burdensome regulatory framework for AI and directed multiple federal agencies to challenge state AI laws deemed inconsistent with that framework. It is the most consequential of the Trump administration's AI executive orders for state-federal regulatory relations.
'''Executive Order 14365''', titled ''Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence'', was signed on December 11, 2025. It directs federal litigation, agency assessments, funding reviews and a legislative recommendation aimed at a nationally uniform approach to AI regulation.<ref name="order">[https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/ Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Executive Order 14365, December 11, 2025, §§ 1–9.</ref> It was published on December 16, 2025, at 90 FR 58499.<ref name="fr">[https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence], Federal Register, December 16, 2025, document 2025-23092.</ref>
 
The order has spawned multiple downstream actions tracked elsewhere on this wiki, including the [[AI Law Wiki News for January 1, 2026|DOJ AI Litigation Task Force]], the [[AI Law Wiki News for March 11, 2026|Commerce Department State AI Laws Assessment]], and the [[AI Law Wiki News for March 11, 2026|FTC AI Policy Statement]].


== Background ==
== Background ==
By late 2025, numerous states had enacted or were advancing comprehensive AI regulation, including risk-based frameworks (Colorado SB 24-205), consumer protection statutes (Texas, Utah), and sector-specific requirements (California). The Trump administration characterized this patchwork as a threat to U.S. AI competitiveness, arguing that a fragmented multi-state regulatory environment would impose compliance costs on AI developers and slow the pace of innovation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.sidley.com/en/insights/newsupdates/2025/12/unpacking-the-december-11-2025-executive-order|title=Unpacking the December 11, 2025 Executive Order: Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=Sidley Austin LLP|date=December 2025}}</ref>
The order builds on [[Executive Order 14179]]. Its preamble argues that differing state rules increase compliance burdens, particularly for startups, and criticizes some state requirements concerning AI outputs and disclosures. These are the administration's stated reasons for its policy, not judicial findings that the targeted laws are invalid.<ref name="order" />
 
The order also reflected the administration's competitive framing of AI policy: that China was advancing rapidly in AI and that U.S. state-level regulatory friction threatened American dominance in what the administration described as "the defining technology of the century."


<span id="Key_Provisions"></span>
<span id="Key_Provisions"></span>
== Requirements ==
== Requirements ==
=== Policy Statement ===
=== Policy Statement ===
The order declares it is the policy of the United States to "sustain and enhance the United States' global AI dominance through a minimally burdensome national policy framework for AI." The administration asserted this policy as the basis for federal authority to challenge state laws inconsistent with that objective.
Section 2 states a policy of maintaining US global AI leadership through a minimally burdensome national framework.<ref name="order" />


=== DOJ AI Litigation Task Force ===
=== DOJ AI Litigation Task Force ===
The order directed the Department of Justice to establish an AI Litigation Task Force to identify and challenge in court state AI laws that the administration deemed inconsistent with the federal policy statement, on grounds including conflict preemption, field preemption, and Commerce Clause violations. The Task Force was established in January 2026.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wiley.law/alert-White-House-Issues-Executive-Order-to-Promote-National-AI-Policy-Framework-and-Challenge-Certain-State-AI-Laws|title=White House Issues Executive Order to Promote National AI Policy Framework and Challenge Certain State AI Laws|publisher=Wiley Law|date=2025}}</ref>
Section 3 directs the Attorney General to establish a task force within 30 days to challenge state AI laws inconsistent with that policy. Listed grounds include unconstitutional regulation of interstate commerce, preemption by existing federal regulations, and other grounds of unlawfulness in the Attorney General's judgment.<ref name="order" />


=== Commerce Department State-Law Assessment ===
=== Commerce Department State-Law Assessment ===
The Department of Commerce was directed to evaluate state AI laws and identify those posing the greatest threat to national AI policy objectives. The resulting assessment, released in March 2026, flagged specific state statutes for DOJ Task Force referral.
Section 4 directs Commerce to publish an evaluation within 90 days identifying state AI laws it considers inconsistent with the policy and laws for potential referral to the task force. The evaluation must address certain output-alteration requirements and potentially unconstitutional disclosure or reporting requirements; it may also identify laws that promote innovation.<ref name="order" />


=== FTC AI Policy Statement ===
=== FTC AI Policy Statement ===
The Federal Trade Commission was directed to issue a policy statement addressing how the FTC Act applies to AI models and identifying circumstances in which state AI laws requiring alterations to truthful AI outputs are preempted by federal law. The FTC issued this statement in March 2026.
Section 7 directs the FTC chairman to issue a policy statement within 90 days on the FTC Act's unfair-or-deceptive-practices prohibition as applied to AI models, including the proposed preemption rationale concerning state-mandated alterations of truthful outputs. This provision is a direction to issue a statement, not proof that one was issued by the deadline.<ref name="order" />


=== FCC Proceeding ===
=== FCC Proceeding ===
The Federal Communications Commission was directed to initiate a proceeding to consider whether a federal reporting and disclosure standard for AI models should be established, which could serve as the basis for preemption of more onerous state disclosure requirements.
Section 6 directs the FCC chairman to initiate a proceeding on whether to adopt a federal AI-model reporting and disclosure standard that preempts conflicting state laws. Its deadline is 90 days after publication of the § 4 identification, rather than 90 days after the executive order itself.<ref name="order" />


=== Federal Funding Conditions ===
=== Federal Funding Conditions ===
The order directed executive departments and agencies to assess their discretionary grant programs and determine whether grants to states could be conditioned on a state either not enacting AI laws conflicting with the federal policy statement, or entering into binding agreements not to enforce conflicting laws during the grant performance period. The order explicitly invoked the BEAD Program (Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment) as a potential leverage point.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://datamatters.sidley.com/2025/12/23/unpacking-the-december-11-2025-executive-order-ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence/|title=Unpacking the December 11, 2025 Executive Order|publisher=Sidley Austin LLP / Data Matters Blog|date=December 23, 2025}}</ref>
Section 5(a) directs a Commerce policy notice within 90 days concerning remaining BEAD funding, including ineligibility for non-deployment funds for states with identified laws, to the maximum extent federal law allows. Section 5(b) separately directs agencies to assess whether discretionary grants may be conditioned on states not enacting conflicting AI laws or agreeing not to enforce them during the grant performance period.<ref name="order" />


=== Carveouts for State Authority ===
=== Carveouts for State Authority ===
The order preserved state regulatory authority in three specific areas, explicitly exempting them from the federal preemption push:
Section 8 directs preparation of a legislative recommendation. Its proposed preemption must exclude otherwise lawful state laws concerning child safety; AI compute and data-center infrastructure, except generally applicable permitting reforms; state-government procurement and use of AI; and other topics to be determined. These limitations apply to the legislative recommendation described in § 8, rather than operating as a blanket exemption from every action directed elsewhere in the order.<ref name="order" />
* Child safety regulations relating to AI
* State government infrastructure development programs
* State government AI procurement<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.troutmanprivacy.com/2025/12/analyzing-the-executive-order-on-ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-ai/|title=Analyzing the Executive Order on Ensuring a National Policy Framework for AI|publisher=Troutman Privacy + Cyber + AI|date=2025}}</ref>


== Downstream Agency Actions ==
== Downstream Agency Actions ==
The order generated a cluster of federal actions in the first months of 2026:
On January 9, 2026, the Attorney General issued a memorandum establishing the AI Litigation Task Force. The memorandum makes the Attorney General or a designee its chair and the Associate Attorney General its vice chair, with representatives from specified DOJ offices and the Civil Division.<ref name="doj">[https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1422986/dl Artificial Intelligence Litigation Task Force], Attorney General memorandum, January 9, 2026.</ref>
* '''January 2026''' — DOJ AI Litigation Task Force formally established
 
* '''March 2026''' — Commerce Department released its state AI laws assessment
The order's deadlines for Commerce and FTC documents must be distinguished from publication of the documents themselves. The original order establishes those obligations but does not establish subsequent completion.<ref name="order" />
* '''March 2026''' — FTC issued its AI Policy Statement
* '''April 2026''' — DOJ intervened in xAI v. Weiser (challenge to Colorado SB 24-205), escalating to a formal party in the litigation (May 2026)


== Legal and Constitutional Analysis ==
== Legal and Constitutional Analysis ==
Legal commentators debated whether the executive order's preemption strategy had a sound constitutional basis. Because Congress had not enacted comprehensive federal AI legislation, there was no statutory basis for field preemption of state AI law. The administration's approach relied primarily on assertions of conflict preemption — that specific state AI requirements conflict with the federal government's ability to pursue its AI policy objectives — and on the spending power conditions approach authorized by South Dakota v. Dole.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mayerbrown.com/en/insights/publications/2025/12/president-trump-issues-executive-order-on-ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence|title=President Trump Issues Executive Order on "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence"|publisher=Mayer Brown|date=December 2025}}</ref>
The order directs litigation and further agency action and calls for legislation; it does not itself adjudicate the validity of an individual state statute. Section 9 preserves statutory agency authority, makes implementation subject to applicable law and available appropriations, and disclaims creation of a privately enforceable right or benefit.<ref name="order" />
 
Critics argued that executive policy statements without congressional authorization cannot themselves preempt state law, and that spending-power conditions must be clearly stated in the legislation creating the underlying grant program. Supporters argued the administration had broad discretion to challenge state laws through litigation without requiring statutory preemption authority.


The December 11, 2025 EO was the direct legislative inspiration for the [[AI Law Wiki News for March 20, 2026|TRUMP AMERICA AI Act]] introduced by Sen. Blackburn in 2026, which would have codified the preemption policy in statute.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/12/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-ensures-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence/|title=Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Ensures a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence|publisher=The White House|date=December 2025}}</ref>
== Related articles ==
* [[Executive Order 14179]]
* [[America's AI Action Plan]]
* [[United States policy on catastrophic AI risk]]
* [[United States Federal Authorities]]


== References ==
== References ==
<references/>
<references />


== External Links ==
== External Links ==
* [https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Full text Federal Register]
* [https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/ Full executive order White House]
* [https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/12/eliminating-state-law-obstruction-of-national-artificial-intelligence-policy/ White House announcement]
* [https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence Federal Register publication]
* [https://ballotpedia.org/Executive_Order:_Ensuring_a_National_Policy_Framework_for_Artificial_Intelligence_(Donald_Trump,_2025) Ballotpedia]
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