1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

I urge you to oppose any executive order that would prohibit states from regulating artificial intelligence. This proposed ban, announced by President Trump on Truth Social this week, threatens both national security and American workers under the guise of promoting competitiveness. The claim that state-level AI regulation hampers innovation ignores a critical reality: our most serious national security vulnerabilities involving AI stem from lack of oversight, not excessive regulation. AI systems now underpin essential functions across our economy and defense apparatus, including airport routing, energy-grid forecasting, fraud-detection systems, real-time battlefield data integration, and defense-industrial-base operations. When crucial infrastructure depends on opaque, unregulated algorithms, a single manipulated output can shut down regional power, destabilize financial markets, or degrade military readiness in ways difficult to detect in real time. Former Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has warned that the Pentagon repeatedly identifies state-of-the-art AI models as vulnerable to manipulation through data poisoning, where hostile actors corrupt training data, and adversarial prompting, where carefully crafted inputs bypass safeguards and force dangerous behavior. According to U.S. intelligence reporting, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea are investing heavily in model theft, insider recruitment, and targeted penetration of AI-development pipelines specifically because the United States has left this terrain largely undefended. This executive order follows a failed attempt to include sweeping preemption language in the National Defense Authorization Act that would have nullified existing state AI laws. Preventing states from establishing guardrails creates concentrated, high-impact failure points that are attractive targets for adversaries. It also leaves American workers vulnerable to displacement by unregulated AI systems with no accountability measures in place. I ask that you publicly oppose this executive order and support state authority to regulate AI systems that affect critical infrastructure, employment, and public safety. National security and worker protection require oversight, not deregulation.