June 30, 2025
Dear Senator:
As the Senate considers amendments to the reconciliation bill, the Transportation Trades Department, AFL-CIO (TTD) urges you to vote YES on Amendment #2763 offered by Senators Maria Cantwell and Ed Markey striking the federal AI moratorium. As America’s largest transportation labor federation, representing 38 unions and millions of skilled trades workers, TTD urges you to support this amendment to ensure that states remain free to legislate on the pressing safety, security, and privacy issues their citizens face as companies deploy artificial intelligence (AI) or automated decision systems across the country, absent a strong federal regulatory framework.
As currently written, the ‘compromise’ amendment to improve the AI moratorium led by Senators Blackburn and Cruz (#2602) fails to grant the states true freedom on this issue. The amendment grants too much authority to the Secretary of Commerce, allowing for the Secretary to weaponize broadband funds against states that seek to protect their citizens from AI harms. We are also deeply concerned that the amendment as written puts the onus on states and consumers to prove that a state’s law or regulation would not be an “undue or disproportionate burden” on tech companies, making the supposed exceptions carved out by this amendment nearly useless. Given the complexities of this issue and the shortcomings of the proposed language, Section 40012 should be stricken in its entirety.
Transportation workers and passengers across the country face a myriad of risks to their safety and security as transportation technologies rapidly evolve to make use of AI. With Congress failing to enact comprehensive AI regulation, workers deserve to continue to make their voices heard at the state and local levels to enact responsible, commonsense restrictions on the deployment of AI.
If you have any questions or concerns about this vote recommendation, please do not hesitate to reach out to TTD Legislative Representative Samantha Fazenbaker at samanthaf@ttd.org.
Sincerely,
Greg Regan
President