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House discussion draft would freeze state AI laws for three years, mandate frontier safety frameworks

Obernolte and Trahan's 269-page Great American AI Act sets a $500M revenue threshold for federal oversight and codifies the Center for AI Standards and Innovation.

By Ben Krauss · Daily desk lead ·

Reps. Jay Obernolte (R-Calif.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) on June 4 released a 269-page discussion draft of the Great American AI Act, a bipartisan vehicle (co-sponsored by Reps. Scott Franklin, Suhas Subramanyam, Erin Houchin, and Scott Peters) that would freeze new state laws governing AI model development for three years while imposing federal safety obligations on the largest frontier labs. It’s the most concrete legislative articulation yet of the floor-versus-ceiling fight that’s been simmering in AI policy circles since the failed preemption push last summer.

The mechanics. Developers with more than $500 million in prior-year gross revenue would’ve to publish public AI frameworks disclosing “catastrophic risk” potential, defined as death or injury to more than 50 people or more than $1 billion in property damage, and report critical safety incidents to the government. The three-year preemption blocks states from “specifically regulating the development” of models, per Roll Call, while preserving state authority over deployment and use. The draft also codifies the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, the rebranded Biden-era U.S. AI Safety Institute, inside Commerce, with $100 million per year authorized through fiscal 2029. It extends the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 through 2035 and makes open-source maintainers eligible for funding and controlled access to frontier models to patch vulnerabilities.

The reactions split along the lines you’d expect. NetChoice policy director Patrick Hedger called a federal standard “commendable” but flagged concerns on preemption, safety testing and audits. Alliance for Secure AI CEO Brendan Steinhauser said the bill “does not justify preempting states’ ability to pass their own AI safeguards.” Brad Carson, president of Americans for Responsible Innovation, was sharper: the draft “takes the current floor on state AI legislation and turns it into a federal ceiling.”

Timing tells the rest of the story. The draft landed two days after President Trump signed an executive order setting up voluntary federal reviews of new frontier models, a sequencing that makes the legislation read less as standalone policy than as the statutory scaffolding the executive branch has been waiting for.

Sources