Signal White House Releases National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence

Summary

The White House released its National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence on 20 March 2026, pursuant to a presidential executive order dated 11 December 2025. The four-page document sets out seven general priorities and urges Congress to adopt a federally unified, innovation-oriented regime centered on preemption of state AI laws and a light-touch regulatory approach. The framework is not itself binding and creates no new legal obligations, instead recommending approaches for Congress to codify, while explicitly preserving state authority over zoning/AI infrastructure placement and states' own AI procurement use. Executive Order 14365 required the Commerce Department to identify “onerous” state AI laws within 90 days for possible referral to an AI Litigation Task Force (announced 9 January 2026), though that evaluation, due 11 March 2026, had not been publicly released as of the reporting. The push comes against a backdrop of a 2025 surge in state AI legislation and new 2026 compliance regimes in California, New York and Colorado, with Democratic opposition to federal preemption complicating passage given a narrow House GOP majority.