WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - The Republican-led U.S.

Senate voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove a 10-year

federal moratorium on state regulation of artificial

intelligence from President Trump's sweeping tax-cut and

spending bill.

Lawmakers voted 99-1 to strike the ban from the bill by

adopting an amendment offered by Republican Senator Marsha

Blackburn. The action came during a marathon session known as a

"vote-a-rama," in which lawmakers offered numerous amendments to

the legislation that Republicans eventually hope to pass.

Republican Senator Thom Tillis was the lone lawmaker who

voted to retain the ban.

The Senate version of Trump's legislation would have only

restricted states regulating AI from tapping a new $500 million

fund to support AI infrastructure.

Major AI companies, including Alphabet's Google

and OpenAI, have expressed support for Congress taking AI

regulation out of the hands of states to free innovation from a

panoply of differing requirements.

Blackburn presented her amendment to strike the provision a

day after agreeing to compromise language with Senate Commerce

Committee chair Ted Cruz that would have cut the ban to five

years and allowed states to regulate issues such as protecting

artists' voices or child online safety if they did not impose an

"undue or disproportionate burden" on AI.

But Blackburn withdrew her support for the compromise before

the amendment vote.

"The current language is not acceptable to those who need

these protections the most," the Tennessee Republican said in a

statement.

"Until Congress passes federally preemptive legislation like

the Kids Online Safety Act and an online privacy framework, we

can't block states from making laws that protect their

citizens."