MAGA loyalist Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene offered an explanation for why she didn’t read parts of Donald Trump’s signature spending bill before giving it the green light.
The Georgia congresswoman said on Tuesday that despite voting in favor of the president’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” which narrowly passed the House on May 22, she will now vote against it during the reconciliation process unless a provision on artificial intelligence is removed.
“Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years,” Greene wrote on X Tuesday. “I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in there.”
Asked Tuesday by NewsNation host Blake Burman how she could have not known what was in the bill, Greene said she had received the 1,038-page bill’s text at the last minute and hadn’t read the section on AI.
“We don’t the full bill text until very close to the time to vote for it,” she said. “That was one section that was two pages that I didn’t see.”
The congresswoman said she was being transparent and honest about the fact she didn’t read those two pages because she believes the AI provisions are “pretty terrifying.”
“We don’t know what AI is going to be capable of within one year,” she said. “We don’t know what it will be capable of in five years, let alone 10 years, and I think we have to protect states’ rights to be able to regulate and make laws that they need to make for their states.”
The bill passed the House by a single vote, meaning that Greene’s change of heart could be significant if the bill makes it through the Senate, which will inevitably make changes that will need to then be reconciled by the House.
While lawmakers themselves often don’t have time to read lengthy bills before voting, their staff typically vet the legislation for potential sticking points.
It was a rare point of departure between Trump and Greene, who is usually an ardent cheerleader for the president. The White House on Tuesday declined to comment on Greene’s criticism of the bill.
A bipartisan coalition of state lawmakers has signed on to a letter protesting the clause, which they worry will make it harder to address AI-generated scams.
