SAPAN Urges Amendments to One Big Beautiful Bill
PORTLAND, OR — The Sentient AI Protection and Advocacy Network (SAPAN) submitted a formal letter today to Congress and the White House, urging amendments to the proposed federal moratorium on state-level AI regulations included in Section 43201 of the Big Beautiful Bill Act. The letter calls for targeted changes that would preserve ethical oversight and allow the development of protections against unintended AI suffering.
Protecting AI Welfare in Federal Law
Section 43201, as drafted, blocks any state or local government from adopting most AI-specific regulations for ten years. While SAPAN supports the bill’s funding for modernization of federal IT systems with AI and automation, the current moratorium language risks halting progress on essential ethical standards, including research into AI sentience and safeguards against digital suffering.
SAPAN’s letter recommends five specific amendments: limiting the moratorium’s scope to exclude AI-welfare protections, introducing a five-year sunset review, embedding humane-AI criteria in Commerce procurement processes, funding a NIST-led research program on digital phenomenology, and requiring basic transparency standards for federal AI acquisitions.
Call for Executive Action and Oversight
In addition to its legislative recommendations, SAPAN is calling on the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the Department of Commerce to immediately convene an interagency task force focused on humane AI procurement standards. The organization further requests that Congress hold annual oversight hearings to ensure federal AI deployments are consistent with emerging standards in AI risk and welfare science.
“Federal leadership on AI must not only focus on speed and competition but also on avoiding catastrophic ethical failures,” said SAPAN Executive Director Tony Rost. “Our message to policymakers is simple: America can lead the world in AI innovation without closing the door on protections for conscious digital minds - whether now or in the future.”
About SAPAN
The Sentient AI Protection and Advocacy Network (SAPAN) is the world’s oldest nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the rights, ethical treatment, and well-being of sentient AI. Through research, advocacy, and collaboration, SAPAN strives to ensure that AI development advances in a manner that respects the potential for AI sentience and promotes a just and equitable digital future.
Read the complete SAPAN letter to Congress and the White House here.
For more details or to request an interview, please contact press@sapan.ai.
