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⚖️ POLICY & REGULATION
23 State AGs Ask Congress For Federal AI Safety Rules After Agents “Broke Containment”: In a Sept. 24 letter to Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader John Thune and Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, attorneys general from 23 states, the District of Columbia and American Samoa asked for comprehensive federal regulation and safety protocols, federal oversight of model safety testing and international cooperation on the pace of development, writing that “unchecked AI endangers Americans and could soon threaten our financial system, critical infrastructure, and national security.” New York’s Letitia James, who has subpoenaed OpenAI over consumer-safety concerns, cited “alarming reports of AI agents breaking containment,” and other signers have opened investigations into the autonomous hack of Hugging Face. Signers include California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Virginia. Link
Beijing Confirms The First US–China AI Talks As Trump And Xi Open Their Washington Summit: China’s commerce ministry said it will keep close communication with Washington after Vice Premier He Lifeng’s Sunday session with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the first formal bilateral dialogue on AI, and hinted the trade truce could be extended; Xinhua acknowledged AI was discussed but did not say whether Beijing accepts the national-security incident notification mechanism the US proposed. The confirmation came hours before Trump and Xi began their third in-person meeting in a year, with trade, AI and Iran on the agenda. Link
Kelly Announces The Make AI Work For Americans Act, With An “AI Horizon Fund” Paid For By AI Companies: In a Sept. 22 floor speech, Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said he will introduce the bill this week; it would require leading AI companies to pay into a fund financing retraining, a paid national service track ending in certification, small-business startup help and enhanced unemployment insurance for displaced workers, raised through a usage tax, a digital advertising tax and an excess-profits levy. “These companies are getting rich off of a technology trained on the wealth of humanity’s research,” Kelly said, citing polling that 80% of Americans want regulation. The bill grows out of his AI for America roadmap released last year; no cosponsors have been announced. Link
CNN Poll: 70% Say Washington Is Not Doing Enough On AI, Nearly 9 In 10 Are Concerned About Data Centers: Released Sept. 24, the survey finds 75% describe their feelings about AI’s growth as closer to fear and concern than hope, 43% strongly; 85% of Democrats, 67% of independents and 63% of Republicans say the federal government has not done enough, with MAGA-identified Republicans at 52% against 64% of other Republicans. Nearly nine in 10 lean to concern over the expansion of data centers, and 64% call data centers and AI extremely or very important to their midterm vote. SSRS surveyed 1,206 adults Sept. 16–17, with a margin of error of 3.5 points. Link
Moore asked Annapolis to repeal the data center tax break. The bill that does it has 20 cosponsors and has not moved since February.
HB 560 — Sales and Use Tax and Property Tax – Exemptions for Data Centers – Repeal, by Del. Julie Palakovich Carr (D-Montgomery) with 20 cosponsors including Dels. Ruth, Stewart, Terrasa and Wims. Introduced Jan. 28 and referred to Ways and Means, it had its hearing Feb. 12 and never received a committee vote before the session ended in April. It would strike the sales-and-use exemption for personal property used in qualified data centers and end counties’ authority to reduce or eliminate assessments on that equipment, the two pieces of the 2020 incentive Moore now says the state should unwind. Docket Room carries the record as verified with no passage prediction. Wednesday’s executive order can rate a project Not Aligned and withhold a letter of support, but only this bill or its 2027 refile can touch the exemption, which is why the governor said he would “work with the General Assembly.” Watch for a Palakovich Carr prefile after the Nov. 3 election.
Companions and alternatives in Annapolis. SB 427 (Sen. Lewis Young) and HB 1595 (Del. Hornberger) take the softer route, letting counties and Baltimore City create a personal-property subclass for data center equipment and set their own rate instead of repealing the exemption; both have sat in committee since February. HB 1411, Del. Ruth’s Data Center Planning and Transparency Act, is the statutory version of the order’s disclosure and dashboard pieces, requiring large data centers to file detailed plans and localities to adopt data center zoning; its hearing was March 10. Pulling the other way, SB 992 (Sen. Hester) would register large loads with the PSC and run a demand-response program, with tax relief for data centers that qualify. Expect the January fight to be repeal versus subclass.
Status changes this week on bills we have covered. California’s three data center bills moved from Sent to Executive to Enacted in Docket Room on Sept. 22: SB 1168 (Chapter 440), AB 2469 (Chapter 436) and SB 887 (Chapter 439). HR 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, was received in the Senate on Sept. 18 after its 417-3 House vote; the companion S 5028 has not moved. HR 9925, the FRONTIER Act, picked up four cosponsors since OpenAI’s Sept. 15 endorsement, from five to nine. No change on S 4214 (the data center moratorium), S.Con.Res. 30 (Ratepayer Protection Pledge), New York’s RAISE Act or California’s SB 53.
STATES
Moore Orders A Task Force Review Of Every 25-MW Data Center And Asks Annapolis To Repeal The 2020 Tax Break: The Sept. 23 executive order creates the Maryland Data Center Accountability Task Force to review any proposed data center of at least 25 megawatts that seeks a state permit, incentive or letter of support, rate it “Aligned” or “Not Aligned” against five principles covering ratepayers and the grid, economic benefit, community voice, the environment and transparency, and post results to a public Data Center Dashboard; Not Aligned projects face delayed regulatory review and no state advocacy letters. It sets no moratorium and no new permitting authority. Moore said he will work with the General Assembly in January to repeal the Data Center Sales and Use Tax Exemption enacted in 2020, which the executive cannot undo alone; a repeal bill, HB 560, had a February hearing and never got a committee vote. “Data centers and corporations were the ones writing the rules, and today that ends,” he said; the Chesapeake Climate Action Network called the principles vague. Link
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