ALEC Releases 2026 State AI Policy Toolkit for U.S. Lawmakers
On February 25, 2026, the American Legislative Exchange Council published its State AI Policy Toolkit—a model-legislation guide for state lawmakers framed as a step-by-step path to seize AI innovation while protecting children and limiting burdensome regulation. The release lands amid accelerating state AI bills and a growing federal push against a 50-state patchwork.
TLDR
The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) on February 25, 2026 released the 2026 State AI Policy Toolkit (“The ALEC Guide to a Golden Age of Artificial Intelligence Innovation”). The package offers state legislative leaders model recommendations and policy solutions to promote AI adoption, protect children, and reduce regulatory burden—a free-market-oriented counterweight to more restrictive state AI proposals circulating in 2026.
What’s in the toolkit
From ALEC’s primary publication and press release (February 25, 2026):
- Publisher: American Legislative Exchange Council (authors including Jake Morabito, Jonathan Williams, Lee Schalk, Christian Whittle per publication page).
- Audience: State legislators and staff across all 50 states.
- Framing: Navigate between “AI pessimism and utopianism”; seize the AI moment for state economies.
- Themes (as described in ALEC materials and contemporaneous coverage): step-by-step guidance for leading in AI; protecting children; removing burdensome regulation; model-style recommendations states can adapt.
- Format: Research publication with downloadable PDF toolkit.
ALEC is a long-standing source of model state legislation; the AI toolkit extends that template into frontier-model and generative-AI governance fights that had been mostly federal and blue-state until 2025–2026.
Why this story matters
While Washington debates export controls and voluntary frontier-model access, states write the laws companies ship against first. ALEC’s toolkit is an organized push for light-touch, pro-deployment state AI policy—directly relevant to whether the U.S. ends up with a coherent national approach or a fragmented compliance map that later federal preemption efforts try to unwind.
Sources
- ALEC: “State AI Policy Toolkit: The ALEC Guide to a Golden Age of Artificial Intelligence Innovation” (published February 25, 2026). Primary publication + PDF.
- ALEC press release: “ALEC Releases One-of-a-Kind State AI Policy Toolkit” (February 25, 2026).
Featured Image Alt Text
U.S. state capitol silhouette with AI network overlay and ALEC State AI Policy Toolkit cover.
Tags
ALEC, State AI Policy, Model Legislation, Regulation, Policy, United States