NO FAKES Act stalls in the Senate after Cruz objects

S. 4591, the NO FAKES Act of 2026, would create a federal property right over a person's voice and visual likeness in AI-generated digital replicas, and it has been stalled on the Senate Legislative Calendar since June 24, 2026, after Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) objected on September 30 to passing it by unanimous consent and its House companion drew no action beyond its introduction.

The bill was introduced on May 20, 2026, by Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), with Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) as a lead Republican cosponsor, and referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to congress.gov. The committee ordered it reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute on June 18, 2026, and it was placed on the calendar on June 24, 2026, as Calendar No. 446. It carries 15 cosponsors from both parties.

The reported text would give each person the right to authorize the use of a digital replica of their voice or visual likeness, and to authorize the use of that likeness for a product or service that otherwise would require authorization to avoid liability. The right would be a property right, licensable but not assignable during the person's life, and it would not expire at death.

The bill would set a notice-and-takedown process for unauthorized replicas, with a counter-notification path that lets a user contest a removal. An individual found liable would owe the greater of $5,000 per work or actual damages plus profits, under the reported text. An online service that had not made a good-faith effort to meet the takedown obligations could owe $5,000 for each unauthorized display or transmission, capped at $750,000 per work. A civil action would have to be filed within three years of discovery. The section would take effect 180 days after enactment, and liability would apply only to conduct occurring after enactment.

On the Senate floor on September 30, 2026, Blackburn sought to pass the bill by unanimous consent, a procedure that lets any single senator block it. Cruz objected, saying he had free-speech concerns about how the bill treats satire and parody. Politico reported that Cruz asked whether AI-generated images and videos of the kind often promoted on President Donald Trump's social media accounts would fall out of compliance, and whether the same could be true for news parody sites like The Onion. "I am happy to work with you," Cruz told Blackburn, according to Politico. "But at least as of now, I object."

Deadline reported that Cruz said he was concerned the bill would reach sites like The Babylon Bee or The Onion and would leave the parody decision to technology platforms. From the floor, he said: "It creates an exception for what it calls bona fide parody, but it leaves to big tech to make the decision whether it falls in that exception or not." Deadline also reported that Cruz raised the bill's possible reach to a Los Angeles mayoral candidate's AI deepfake of Rep. Karen Bass, made to look like the Joker, and to Trump's use of AI images in political communication.

Blackburn said the exceptions Cruz wanted are already in the bill. "This bill contains the necessary broad exceptions for entire categories of speech," she said, per Deadline. Coons, the lead sponsor, said on the floor, per Politico: "This is the most baked, ready-to-go AI-related bill there is."

The bill has drawn support from entertainment industry guilds and unions, studios and record labels, and from OpenAI and Google/YouTube, Deadline reported.

The fight over the bill has run alongside a broader Republican dispute over AI and state law. Politico reported that Cruz and Blackburn have been at odds since a five-year moratorium on state AI rules collapsed during 2025 negotiations over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and that a summer package combining the NO FAKES Act with state-preemption and kids-online-safety measures did not move.

The reported text would expressly preempt state laws related to digital replicas, except for causes of action under state statutes or common law in existence as of January 2, 2025, and except for state laws on sexually explicit or election-related replicas. That preemption is among the provisions that keep the bill contested.

Mitch Glazier, the chairman and CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America, told Billboard's Kristin Robinson in an interview published October 7, 2026, that the bill has a real shot in the lame-duck session, the stretch between the November 3 midterm elections and January 3, 2027, The AI Musicpreneur reported in its account of the interview. He also said it was more likely the bill goes into the next Congress, where it would have to be reintroduced in both chambers, according to the same account.

Any Senate passage would still need the House. The House companion, H.R. 8915, was introduced by Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), with Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) as the lead Democratic cosponsor, on May 20, 2026, and referred to the House Judiciary Committee the same day, with no further action recorded on congress.gov.

For creators of AI video, the bill's practical effect is uncertain. If it passed as reported, a maker who used a person's cloned voice or likeness without authorization could face the $5,000-per-work floor, while platforms that built takedown systems in good faith could face a lower exposure. The parody and satire exceptions, and the question of who decides when they apply, are the provisions still in dispute.

The next step is a possible unanimous-consent vote in the lame-duck session after the November 3 midterms, with the House Judiciary Committee still holding the companion bill.