Artificial Intelligence (AI) policy recently took center stage in the 119th Congress with several legislative developments. The ABA is tracking each move and serving as an active thought-leader in these national policy debates and legislative campaigns.
In April 2025, a bipartisan group of senators and members of the House of Representatives reintroduced an AI bill entitled the ‘‘Nurture Originals, Foster Art, and Keep Entertainment Safe Act of 2025’’ H.R. 2794 / S. 1367, or “NO FAKES Act” for short). This legislation establishes the first-ever federal right against one’s unauthorized use of Generative AI (“GenAI”) digital replicas mimicking one’s image, likeness, or voice. The ABA IPL Section has expressed its support for such legislation.
With the reintroduction of this legislation, Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) recognized ABA President Bill Bay who stated that, “The ABA applauds Senator Coons and Senator [Marsha] Blackburn [R-TN] for their bipartisan leadership on the NO FAKES legislation to fight the scourge of unauthorized Generative AI digital replicas.”
At the February 2025 House of Delegates (HOD) meeting, the ABA adopted a policy resolution urging Congress to advance legislation giving people rights against the unauthorized use of their image, voice, and likeness.
In May, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law held a hearing entitled, the “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: AI-Generated Deepfakes in 2025,” focusing on the “NO FAKES Act.” The hearing witnesses included multi-platinum country music singer-songwriter Martina McBride and other industry experts. We can expect additional hearings to follow.
Recently, both chambers of Congress also passed Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-MN) bipartisan AI bill, S.146, the ‘‘Tools to Address Known Exploitation by Immobilizing Technological Deepfakes on Websites and Networks Act’’ or the ‘‘TAKE IT DOWN Act’’ for short. This legislation is designed to combat the intentional disclosure of nonconsensual intimate visual depictions, including those created through GenAI (e.g., “revenge porn”). Under the bill, the intentional disclosure of such images would be eligible for criminal prosecution. President Trump signed the bill into law on May 19th.
Freshman Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) was appointed as the Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Intellectual Property Subcommittee. In this role, he will be an active leader on various AI-related policy issues. We expect he will soon reintroduce his previous AI legislation entitled the “Generative AI Copyright Disclosure Act." This legislation is intended to heighten the respect for copyrighted works (e.g., books, photos, and news) by requiring AI training companies to make a disclosure, including filing a notice with the U.S. Copyright Office, about what copyrighted materials were used when their Large Language Models (LLMs) built and trained their datasets.
Finally, in May, the House Ways and Means Committee introduced the tax bill reflecting many of the President’s fiscal priorities. It includes a provision preempting state AI laws. The intent is for the U.S. to have a nationwide, coherent AI legal framework, rather than a state-by-state regulatory map. This is another significant AI policy to watch develop over the next few months.
For more information about AI legislation and policies as they develop, please contact Chris Katopis, Intellectual Property Legislative Consultant, ABA Governmental Affairs Office, or Michael O’Neill, Legislative Counsel, ABA Governmental Affairs Office.
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