A National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence - Wikipedia

A National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence: Legislative Recommendations is a set of legislative recommendations released by the White House on March 20, 2026, outlining the Trump administration's proposed approach to federal regulation of artificial intelligence. The four-page document calls on Congress to enact legislation covering seven areas: child safety, community protections, intellectual property, free speech, innovation, workforce development, and federal preemption of state AI laws. The document is non-binding and does not carry the force of law; implementing its proposals would require congressional action. The framework was developed by OSTP Director Michael Kratsios and White House Special Advisor for AI and Crypto David Sacks, who indicated the administration intended to work with Congress to turn the recommendations into law within the year.

The framework followed a series of executive actions on AI policy during the second Trump administration. In January 2025, Trump signed Executive Order 14179, revoking the Biden administration's October 2023 executive order on AI ( Executive Order 14110 ) and directing federal agencies to remove what the administration characterized as regulatory barriers to AI development. In July 2025, the administration published a policy blueprint titled "Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan."

On December 11, 2025, Trump signed an executive order titled "Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence," which took more aggressive steps toward displacing state AI regulation. The order directed the Department of Justice to establish an AI Litigation Task Force to challenge state AI laws in court, instructed the Department of Commerce to identify state laws deemed "onerous" by March 2026, and threatened to withhold BEAD program funding from states whose AI laws the administration viewed as conflicting with federal policy. That order also directed Sacks and Kratsios to prepare the legislative recommendations that were ultimately released on March 20, 2026.

Legal commentators noted that the December 2025 executive order, on its own, lacked preemptive force because it was neither a statute enacted by Congress nor a regulation issued pursuant to congressional authorization. Law firms including Latham & Watkins, Ropes & Gray, and Paul Hastings advised clients that state AI laws remained enforceable pending either congressional action or successful litigation.

Prior to the March 2026 framework, the administration and its congressional allies had attempted several times to preempt state AI regulation through legislation, without success. In mid-2025, a proposed 10-year moratorium on new state AI laws was included in a reconciliation bill, but the Senate voted 99–1 to strip the provision following bipartisan opposition. A similar effort to include preemption language in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2026 also failed.

By March 2026, four states had enacted laws setting private-sector requirements for AI: Colorado, California, Utah, and Texas. Colorado's AI Act, which went into effect in February 2026 and required developers and deployers of high-risk AI systems to exercise "reasonable care" to protect consumers from algorithmic discrimination, was cited specifically in the December 2025 executive order as an example of problematic state regulation. More than 1,000 AI-related bills had been introduced across state legislatures by this time.