Executive Order to Block State AI Regulation: Why We Must Fight Back

By Troy Swanson, Legislative Chair

At the end of 2025, the Trump administration issued a dangerous executive order, “Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence,” signed December 11, 2025, aimed at undercutting state-level efforts to regulate AI. Make no mistake: this is an attack on worker protections, public safety, and local democratic control. We must remain steadfast in our efforts to regulate AI. We must move forward.

This executive order stands in direct opposition to the work of CCCTU, the Illinois Federation of Teachers (IFT), and our legislative partners, who have been responsibly confronting the real-world harms of AI in Illinois. Most notably, it clashes with HB 1859, signed into law by Governor Pritzker, which establishes a bright line: only humans—not automated systems—can award academic credit in Illinois community college classrooms. Just as importantly, this executive order is designed to become an obstacle to future protections for other job classifications and public workers across the board.

Instead of building guardrails around AI to protect workers, students, and the public, this administration is prioritizing big tech and billionaire interests. The order’s explicit goal is to eliminate what the White House labels “onerous and excessive” state AI laws and replace them with a national approach focused on AI “dominance”—even if workers and communities pay the price.

What the Executive Order Does

1) Targets state AI laws and discourages local actionThe order directs the Department of Justice to form an AI Litigation Task Force to identify and challenge state AI laws that federal officials claim conflict with national priorities.

2) Pressures states through funding threatsFederal agencies are instructed to consider conditioning major grant programs, including broadband funding, on states dropping or refraining from adopting AI regulations the administration dislikes.

3) Preemption strategy through federal agenciesThe FCC and FTC are tasked with rulemaking that could override state requirements around transparency, disclosure, and safety.

Why This Matters for CCCTU and Working People

CCCTU has been clear: AI policy must protect workers, protect learning, and enforce meaningful accountability. We have pushed for:

• Humans in control of critical decisions like grading, evaluation, and employment actions.

• Strong protections against job displacement and the use of biased automated systems.

• Clear rules for transparency, due process, and accountability when AI is used in public institutions.

This executive order is designed to weaken exactly those protections and to intimidate states into doing nothing.

CCCTU Stance and Next Steps

CCCTU, our union partners, and our legislative partners oppose this executive order and the broader agenda it represents. We will not accept a future where billionaires write the rules and workers absorb the damage. We will fight this attempt to override state authority and strip away worker-centered safeguards.

We must continue to:

• Defend Illinois’s worker-centered AI laws, including HB 1859, and support efforts to strengthen them.

• Stand with IFT and our legislative partners to protect the right of states to regulate AI in the public interest.

• Push back against any effort to tie public funding to surrendering worker protections.

• Demand enforceable guardrails: transparency, accountability, and real human authority over high-stakes decisions.

  
  

AI policy should protect people, not profits. And when the federal government tries to bulldoze state protections to serve corporate interests, CCCTU will organize, advocate, and fight back. We’ll keep members updated on developments and opportunities to take action.