Letters

R Street Institute Letter to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin in Opposition to VA HB 2094, Restrictions on Artificial Intelligence

Feb 20, 2025

issues: Artificial Intelligence, Northeast, State Policy, Technology and Innovation

February 20th, 2025

The Honorable Glenn Youngkin
Governor of Virginia
Patrick Henry Building
1111 E. Broad Street
3rd Floor
Richmond, VA 23219

RE: R Street Institute’s Opposition to Virginia House Bill 2094

Dear Governor Youngkin:

We are writing to you today on behalf of the R Street Institute (R Street) to urge you to veto House Bill 2094 (“HB 2094”) because this heavy-handed effort to regulate artificial intelligence (AI) systems is burdensome and unnecessary. As R Street noted in testimony before the legislature last month, this measure, “will subvert the ability of the Commonwealth to continue to be a leader in state-level digital innovation,” and “there are better ways for Virginia to address concerns about AI systems that would not involve a heavy-handed, top-down, paperwork-intensive regulatory system for the most important technology of modern times.”[1]

Virginia remains a leader in digital innovation thanks to the light-touch regulatory approach the Commonwealth and the nation as a whole adopted a generation ago to spur the internet and digital revolution.^[2] This wise and balanced policy framework encouraged investment and innovation in cutting-edge technological systems and allowed American companies to become global technology leaders.

HB 2094 threatens this success. The measure essentially builds on the failed regulatory model that the European Union (EU) uses to regulate digital technology and now AI.[3] The EU’s compliance-heavy regulatory regime has decimated competition, investment, and new business formation across the continent, leading experts to label Europe “the biggest loser” in the global digital technology race.^[4]

This must not happen to Virginia or the United States. Importantly, HB 2094’s approach to AI policy runs counter to the new vision set forth by the Trump administration to ensure that America is prepared to meet the challenge posed by China and other nations.[5] In January, President Trump signed a new executive order on “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” which stressed the need “to sustain and enhance America’s global AI dominance in order to promote human flourishing, economic competitiveness, and national security.”[6] Then, on February 11, Vice President JD Vance delivered a major keynote address at the Paris AI Action Summit that more fully developed the administration’s “AI opportunity” agenda and he explained how “we believe that excessive regulation of the AI sector could kill a transformative industry just as it’s taking off, and we will make every effort to encourage pro-growth AI policies.”[7] Vance also noted that “the Trump Administration will ensure the AI systems developed in America are free from ideological bias and never restrict our citizens’ right to free speech.”

HB 2094 runs counter to these objectives and would undermine America’s renewed focus on investment, innovation, and free speech by undermining global U.S. leadership in AI.

Importantly, HB 2094 is also unnecessary because Virginia already possesses many civil rights laws and consumer protection regulations that can address any concerns about “algorithmic discrimination” or other harms from AI systems. Virginia should not be legislating based on speculative future fears about technologies that have not yet even been developed or widely deployed. Again, that sort of European-style regulatory approach essentially treats AI innovators as guilty until proven innocent of hypothetical dangers. The better approach is to use existing laws and regulations to address concerns as they develop and then supplement them in a targeted fashion if gaps are identified.

HB 2094 also potentially creates new liability risks by failing to clearly limit the potential for frivolous litigation based on the speculative harms discussed in the measure. The combination of excessive regulation and potentially expansive legal liability in the courts would strike a crushing blow against small businesses and start-ups, among other AI developers. Even the EU itself recently decided to abandon its major AI liability directive after consideration of its costs and trade-offs.[8]

Virginia should aim to remain a leader in digital innovation with a forward-looking governance approach that embraces the AI future and its many benefits. Unfortunately, HB 2094 would undermine AI growth and opportunity in the Commonwealth and the nation. For these reasons, we urge you to veto this bill.

Thank you,

Adam Thierer
Resident Senior Fellow, Technology and Innovation
R Street Institute
athierer@rstreet.org

Robert Melvin
Northeast Region State Government Affairs Director
R Street Institute
rmelvin@rstreet.org

CC: Nicole Bunce Ogburn, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Strategic Engagement, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin

Lindsay Fisher, Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin

Josh Humphries, Director of Legislative Affairs, Office of Governor Glenn Youngkin

[1] Testimony from Adam Thierer, Senior Research Fellow, R Street Institute, “R Street Testimony In Opposition to HB 2094: “High-Risk Artificial Intelligence; development, deployment, and use; civil penalties,” Jan. 27, 2025. https://www.rstreet.org/outreach/r-street-testimony-in-opposition-to-va-hb-2094-high-risk-artificial-intelligence-development-deployment-and-use-civil-penalties.

[2] Adam Thierer, “Getting AI Innovation Culture Right,” R Street Institute Policy Study №281 (March 2023). https://www.rstreet.org/research/getting-ai-innovation-culture-right.

[3] Dean W. Ball, “The EU AI Act is Coming to America,” Hyperdimensional, Feb. 13, 2025. https://www.hyperdimensional.co/p/the-eu-ai-act-is-coming-to-america.

[4] “The Biggest Loser,” The International Economy, (Spring 2022). https://www.international-economy.com/TIE_Sp22_EuropeTechLoser.pdf

[5] Adam Thierer, “Ramifications of China’s DeepSeek Moment, Part 3: What Both Parties Need to Accept and Do Next,” R Street Analysis, Feb. 18, 2025. https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/ramifications-of-chinas-deepseek-moment-part-3-what-both-parties-need-to-accept-and-do-next.

[6] President Donald Trump, “Removing Barriers to American Leadership in Artificial Intelligence,” Executive Order, Jan. 23, 2025. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/removing-barriers-to-american-leadership-in-artificial-intelligence.

[7] Adam Thierer, “Vice President JD Vance Resets the Global AI Agenda with Paris AI Action Summit Address” R Street Real Analysis, Feb. 11, 2025. https://www.rstreet.org/commentary/vice-president-jd-vance-resets-the-global-ai-agenda-with-paris-ai-action-summit-address.

[8] Caitlin Andrews, “European Commission withdraws AI Liability Directive from consideration,” IAPP.org. https://iapp.org/news/a/european-commission-withdraws-ai-liability-directive-from-consideration.