Two senators are calling on the Trump administration to ensure that any new regulations on artificial intelligence maintain “provisions that incentivize companies to keep a majority of their computing infrastructure used to train frontier models in the United States” and adopt “robust security guardrails on overseas data centers.”
President Trump announced July 23 a broad action plan on AI that envisions the expansion of AI technology exports to allies and partners as well as stricter export controls on adversaries. A new executive order directs the Department of Commerce to establish and implement within 90 days a program to support the development and deployment of U.S. full-stack AI export packages (which include hardware, models, software, applications, and standards). The DOC will issue a public call for proposals from industry-led consortia for inclusion in this program, with each proposal required to identify specific target countries or regional blocs for export engagement; comply with all relevant U.S. export control regimes, outbound investment regulations, and end-user policies; and provide other specific information.
The DOC will work with other agencies to evaluate submitted proposals. Those selected for inclusion in the program will be designated as priority AI export packages and will be supported through priority access to federal financing tools.
Separately, the State Department will be responsible for (1) developing and executing a unified federal strategy to promote the export of U.S. AI technologies and standards, (2) aligning technical, financial, and diplomatic resources to accelerate deployment of priority AI export packages under the program, (3) coordinating U.S. participation in multilateral initiatives and country-specific partnerships for AI deployment and export promotion, (4) supporting partner countries in fostering pro‑innovation regulatory, data, and infrastructure environments conducive to the deployment of U.S. AI systems, (5) analyzing market access, including technical barriers to trade and regulatory measures that may impede the competitiveness of U.S. offerings, and (6) coordinating with the Small Business Administration to facilitate investment in U.S. small businesses for the development of AI technologies and the manufacture of AI infrastructure, hardware, and systems.
In a July 31 letter to Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mike Rounds, R-S.D., are urging the administration to establish appropriately robust export controls to discourage companies from outsourcing critical technologies like AI as well as to ensure that those technologies are not “misused once exported.” The lawmakers deem it “essential” to develop a rule that maintains “the center of gravity for AI infrastructure in the United States and imposes strong, robust security requirements on overseas facilities.”
The lawmakers warned that, if robust guardrails are not adopted, the center of gravity for cutting-edge AI training and development could move overseas, as it did in the semiconductor and solar sectors in previous decades.
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