April 13, 2026

Tennessee House of Representatives
Tennessee State Capitol
600 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard
Nashville, Tennessee 37243

Dear Representative,

A vote has been scheduled on April 13, 2026, in the Tennessee House of Representatives on HB 1898, the Artificial Intelligence Public Safety and Child Protection Transparency Act.  On behalf of the 5,441 members and supporters of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) in Tennessee, I urge you to oppose this legislation, which would impose civil penalties on AI companies for failing to publish an approved safety plan.

This legislation would require AI developers and chatbot providers to post on their website explicit details of how their company designs and assesses thresholds for implementing risk assessments, mitigation strategies, and security practices relative to “catastrophic risk” for frontier models designed for and capable of large-scale automated, synthetic, or artificially intelligent design patterns, and imposes penalties on developers or providers from making a materially false or misleading statement or omission regarding covered risks.  The ambiguous and vague language of HB 1898 will be difficult for companies to comply and could be easily interpreted to place all AI companies at fault regardless of efforts to protect children using their products and services.

Protecting children is a laudable goal for any legislator but imposing burdensome and vague paperwork requirements on AI companies will lead many to abandon operations in Tennessee.  This legislation also falls contrary to the national AI framework that President Donald Trump announced on March 20, 2026, which would preempt state AI legislation like HB 1898.  Since AI companies offer their products and services across state lines as interstate commerce, such activity should be solely regulated by the federal government.

For the above reasons, I urge you to oppose HB 1898, which would contribute to the patchwork of AI laws and regulations across the country and impose unnecessary and burdensome restrictions on AI developers and platforms in Tennessee.

Sincerely,
Tom Schatz
President, CCAGW