By Chip Pickering, CEO, INCOMPAS
America has always led the world by building the future — from railroads and highways to the Internet. Today, the next great infrastructure challenge is here: artificial intelligence. AI infrastructure will define the next generation of economic growth, national security, and global competitiveness. And just like in eras past, we must act boldly to ensure we don’t fall behind. I’d like to thank Congressional Leadership, the Senate Commerce Committee, and the Energy and Commerce Committee for their engagement and leadership on building a durable framework for America’s AI future through measures in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Incentivizing States to Build AI Infrastructure
INCOMPAS members are building the digital and energy infrastructure necessary to fuel the AI race. That’s why I believe using an incentive-based approach to spur AI development is positive on two fronts – it empowers states to make their own decision whether or not they want to participate in federal funding for these critical projects and it creates public private partnerships that have long been the cornerstone of economic development. The powerful incentives in the reconciliation bill will speed the infrastructure being built today and power the AI applications and advanced American manufacturing of tomorrow.
The AI Race with China
Make no mistake: we are in an AI race with China. It’s a race that echoes the urgency of the nuclear and space races of the 20th century. The stakes are just as high. In 2024, U.S. companies invested $110 billion in AI — twelve times more than China — but our lead is fragile. China has declared AI a “strategic technology” and plans to lead global AI investment by 2030. They’re on course to graduate twice as many STEM students as we will in 2025. They are ramping up research, centralizing strategy, and rapidly deploying technology at scale.
Unlike China’s single, unified national approach, America is at risk of being dragged down by a fragmented patchwork of state and local AI regulations. This inconsistency doesn’t just confuse companies — it kills innovation.
We need one national playbook, led by Congress, to stay in the lead. We have done it before, we can do it again.
One National Framework, Not Fifty
That’s why I support a temporary pause on new state AI laws — not to delay action, but to accelerate it.
This isn’t about giving up oversight or weakening consumer protection. States will still retain broad authority to enforce laws that promote innovation, protect privacy, and ensure fairness. But for a temporary period, we must avoid a patchwork and state-level free-for-all that could severely hinder national competitiveness, security, and economic development.
The pause is particularly significant for smaller, new entrants in the AI space. Early-stage startups are better able to invest limited resources in research and development and scale their core technology when there is a single, coherent federal framework. A national framework will also create greater predictability for capital decisions and maintain the significant momentum in AI investments in early-stage companies that we have already experienced in 2025.
This nationally-led approach is pro-competition and pro-innovation. It recognizes that AI is a national technology of such strategic importance that it must be governed by a coherent, free-market based national framework — not by conflicting state mandates that create uncertainty, raise costs, and cede leadership to China.
Past Precedent Predicts Future Success
The current AI provision is inspired by earlier models of success of the internet era national policy framework. In the Budget Reconciliation Act of 1993, President Clinton and Democratic majorities in Congress authorized, for the first time, spectrum auctions. This created the competitive wireless industry, advanced networks, devices, and applications we know today. In the same measure, they preempted states from regulating competitive entry and from price regulation. This action, decades later, ensures American technological leadership and continues as a primary catalyst of our economy. In addition, the Internet Tax Freedom Act of 1998 established a temporary moratorium on federal and state taxes on e-commerce. The moratorium was later extended and ultimately made permanent by President Obama. The result, trillions of dollars in economic growth and the creation of thousands of companies of all sizes. Most importantly, the American consumer, competition and innovation benefited.
A Catalyst for Federal Action
Critics may call this a delay tactic. They’re wrong. A temporary pause is not inaction — it’s the fastest path to a real federal strategy. It starts the clock. It pushes Congress to act. And it creates space for stakeholders to come together on a bipartisan, pro-growth approach that secures America’s leadership in the AI century.
INCOMPAS and our AI Competition Center stand ready to work with Congress, the Administration, and the American builders across the AI ecosystem to formulate the comprehensive framework America needs. The down payment on a national approach that we make today will determine whether America’s AI future delivers better healthcare for families, enhanced education for our children, new economic opportunities in every community, and continued global leadership. Or whether we allow regulatory constraints to hand that future to competitors who do not share our national interests.
Let’s ensure what we build from here is based on the principles that have always driven American technological leadership: competition, innovation, and the courage to think big. Bold and aspirational national leadership is once again required. A temporary pause preventing a patchwork of uncertainty and incoherence will unleash a unifying path to a national AI plan. One that contains the ambition, bipartisanship, and national purpose that always secured our best and brightest days. Let’s get it done.
