State attorneys general ask Congress for frontier-AI rules — on condition it does not preempt their own

The letter is short and opens without hedging: the undersigned attorneys general write to urge congressional leadership to immediately establish comprehensive federal regulation and safety protocols for frontier artificial intelligence. It asks for five things — mandatory federal oversight of safety testing conducted by AI experts; uniform, transparent, government-led incident response with broad investigative access; safety infrastructure whose leadership decisions are independent of profit; international cooperation to pace AI advancement; and competitive safeguards so regulation neither undermines competition nor becomes a vehicle for antitrust evasion.

The sixth ask is the political one, and it is stated in the letter as explicit preservation of state authority by prohibiting the preemption of state laws and granting state officials full authority to enforce these federal protections. State attorneys general have been the most active AI enforcers in the United States this year, and federal preemption of state AI statutes has been floated repeatedly in Washington. This is the enforcement community's terms of trade: federal rules, yes — federal rules that displace ours, no. The coalition spans party lines, which raises the political cost of preemption.

The count needs stating carefully, because the sources do not agree. The signature block, read twice, enumerates 26 jurisdictions. The Minnesota Attorney General's own press release says 27, and at least one broadcast outlet said 23; two machine reads of the letter's own summary line returned 28 and then 29 while both times listing the same 26 names. The figure used here is the count of names actually in the signature block, and the discrepancy is flagged rather than smoothed over.

What the letter does not do is the limit. It endorses no bill by number, proposes no statutory text, sets no threshold defining frontier, names no agency to house the oversight it asks for, and carries no legal force. Attorneys general cannot legislate; they can litigate under existing consumer-protection and deceptive-practices law, which is what they have been doing. Its practical significance is as a signal that any federal AI framework arriving with a preemption clause will face two dozen state law-enforcement offices in opposition — and that those offices will keep bringing cases in the meantime.

• Confirmed The letter is dated 23 September 2026 and addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Majority Leader John Thune, and Minority Leaders Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. Coalition letter (PDF)
• Confirmed It asks for explicit preservation of state authority by prohibiting the preemption of state laws and granting state officials full authority to enforce the federal protections. Coalition letter (PDF)
• Confirmed The signature block enumerates 26 state and territory attorneys general; the Minnesota AG's release says 27 and one outlet said 23. The discrepancy is unresolved. Minnesota Attorney General