Rally on 8/20 against Trahan (MA-3) and Big AI
Image courtesy of QuitGPT.
On June 4th, Massachusetts' own Representative Lori Trahan (MA-3) teamed up with Jay Obernolte (R-CA) to release an early draft of the Great American Artificial Intelligence Act of 2026, a proposal to create a single national set of rules for AI. But the backlash started before the draft was even public: nearly 4,000 Massachusetts residents signed a petition urging Trahan not to put her name on it, over 200 state legislators wrote her about the issue, and there were four different open letters with over 100 organizations begging her to change course.
So why the uproar? After all, more than 80% of Americans are demanding that the government put safety rules on AI. The problem comes down to the "preemption" clause, which is when a higher level of government overrides the lower ones. Here, the federal government would take away the states' power to pass their own laws on AI development for three years.
Freezing state rules in place for three years, with no strong federal law ready to take their place, leaves a gap, especially since Congress has yet to pass any meaningful AI legislation of its own. It could also tie states' hands on protecting kids online. States like Massachusetts could find it much harder to respond quickly to new dangers such as addictive algorithms, deepfakes, exploitation, self-harm content, and manipulative chatbots.
Since then, Trahan and Obernolte have turned that June draft into a new bill called the FRONTIER Act. It does have some strengths, like requiring companies to be more transparent and to report problems faster. But it keeps the preemption clause and has turned it into a permanent ban on state-level AI laws.
We won't let Trahan side with OpenAI, Palantir, and Trump on this issue. This is a red line, and she just crossed it.
We're organizing a petition and a public accountability action aimed at Trahan, with two goals:
Stop the ban. Trahan must drop her support for stripping states of the power to write their own AI safety laws.
Refuse the money. She must reject funding from Big AI players like OpenAI and Palantir, money that's pouring in through the super PAC "Leading the Future."
Join us on August 20th 4:00-5:30 PM outside Trahan’s office to deliver the petition nearly 4,000 of your neighbors have already signed. We need Massachusetts residents to show up, stand together, and put those signatures right on Trahan's desk. Add your voice. Bring a friend. Help us make this impossible to ignore.
And if you’re an organization, co-sponsor this petition and action with us! Reach out to contact@bleedingthefuture.org.
Got questions or ideas? We'd love to hear from you: contact@bleedingthefuture.org.
This is a guest article from our friends at QuitGPT. To learn more about their work and to get involved, visit them at quitgpt.org.
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