Docket Room tracks 2,022 AI-related bills across the 50 states and Congress. In the 30 days to August 14, just 55 of them saw any change at all, and only five advanced a stage. Four of those five were federal — and the committee roll calls are far more informative than the bill titles.
Consensus: the electricity bill
HR 6529, the Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act, was ordered reported by House Energy and Commerce on July 21 by 44–0. Not a single member of either party voted no — on a bill introduced by a Democrat (Rep. Greg Landsman, D-OH-1, with 19 cosponsors) that takes direct aim at what AI data centers do to household utility rates.
That unanimity isn't a fluke of one committee. Three more data-center bills entered the hopper in the same window, from both parties and four different committees:
| Bill | Sponsor | Introduced | Referred to |
|---|---|---|---|
| HR 9939 — No AI Data Centers on Federal Lands Act | Tlaib (D-MI-12), 5 cosponsors | Jul 23 | Natural Resources |
| HRES 1471 — transparency and local autonomy for affected communities | Khanna (D-CA-17) | Aug 3 | Energy and Commerce; Judiciary |
| S 4991 — Homestake AI Act of 2026 | Rounds (R-SD), 1 cosponsor | Jul 15 | Energy and Natural Resources |
When AI regulation is framed as an energy-cost and land-use question, it draws unanimous votes. Remember that when you read that Congress can't agree on AI.
Contested: the classroom
The very same day as that 44–0, in the very same chamber, HR 8747 — the K–12 AI Literacy and Readiness Act of 2026, sponsored by Rep. Randy Fine (R-FL-6) — was ordered reported (amended) by House Education and Workforce 18–15. One committee vote apart: unanimous, then a three-vote margin.
Schools are where the AI fight actually is, and everyone wants a vehicle. A Senate companion carrying the identical title, S 5225 (Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-MT, 3 cosponsors), was introduced August 4 and sent to HELP. Two more House bills landed in between: HR 10042, the Understanding AI in the Classroom Act (Whitesides, D-CA-27, August 3), and HR 9907, the LEARN AI Act (Haridopolos, R-FL-8, July 23). Four classroom-AI bills, both parties, three committees, four weeks.
Fastest: children's safety
S 5171, the Children's Artificial Intelligence Toy Safety Act of 2026 (Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-IL), was introduced July 29 and ordered reported favorably by Senate Commerce August 5. Seven days from introduction to committee approval — a pace almost nothing in this corpus matches.
It moved at the same markup as S 4199, Sen. Ed Markey's Youth AI Privacy Act, which had been waiting since March 25 and was also ordered reported favorably, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. Add S 5057, Sen. Mark Warner's SAFE AI Act on fabricated intimate imagery (July 21), and the through-line is clear: bills about AI harming specific children clear committees; bills about AI in the abstract do not.
The states are running the same two plays
The window's only state-level advance was CA AB 1651 (Assemblymember Diane Dixon, R), on artificial intelligence at the State Bar of California. Introduced January 28, it cleared its final legislative hurdle on August 3 — Senate amendments concurred in, 72–0 — and is now on its way to the governor. Another unanimous vote, on another narrow, institution-specific AI bill.
New York, meanwhile, filed three AI bills in three days, two of them about schools: S 10671 on humanoid robots and AI avatars in instructional settings (Sen. Shelley Mayer, D, 5 cosponsors, July 29), A 11662 on human-led instruction (July 31), and A 11636 on third-party verification of AI developers' transparency and safety claims (July 29). Pennsylvania added HB 2705, an AI-workforce reporting mandate with 11 cosponsors (July 16).
What's next: an empty calendar
Nothing. Of the 526 hearings currently on Docket Room's forward calendar across every jurisdiction we track, zero mention artificial intelligence. The four reported bills have cleared their committees and now wait on floor time, and the next AI markup isn't yet scheduled anywhere.
The pattern
One month of committee votes sorts the entire federal AI debate into three tiers. Energy and land use is settled — 44–0. Children's safety is fast — seven days. The classroom is genuinely contested — 18–15, with four competing vehicles and no agreed approach. If you are triaging a thousand-bill AI docket, the two votes cast on July 21 in the same chamber — one unanimous, one decided by three — are the most useful map available.
Method: AI-related bills are matched on bill title and description across all 50 states and Congress; the window is the 30 days ending August 14, 2026. Every date above is the legislature's own date — a bill's introduction date or the date of its latest recorded action — never the date Docket Room detected the change. Vote counts are quoted from the chambers' own action records. A batch of Virginia session-2027 rows that duplicate existing 2026 bills is a known ingest artifact and is excluded from all counts here.
Built from Docket Room's legislative change-tracking across all 50 states and Congress. Browse the full corpus at docketroom.ai or explore AI bills by issue.