The HB 2311 veto letter is a one-page letter dated June 19, 2026 from Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs to Steve Montenegro, Speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, reporting that she had vetoed HB 2311, titled "artificial intelligence service; disclosures; requirements." The bill would have imposed disclosure, content, minor-protection and crisis-response duties on operators of conversational AI services. The letter gives three reasons for the veto, all concerning remedies and enforcement rather than the bill's substantive duties. It is copied to Warren Petersen, Adrian Fontes and Tony Rivero, the bill's prime sponsor (Source: apps.azleg.gov).
Summary of the letter
The letter opens with the veto and a statement of priority: "Today I vetoed HB2311. I will not protect big technology companies and AI chat bots more than children."
It then states three objections in a single sentence. The legislation, Hobbs writes:
- "limits damages to families to what amounts to a drop in the bucket for large corporations";
- "prohibits families from bringing their own lawsuits"; and
- "ties the state's hands in bringing actions in an unprecedented manner."
The closing paragraph looks ahead: Hobbs writes that she looks forward "to working with the Legislature and parents on how to prevent harm to our youth without simultaneously shielding technology companies from meaningful liability."
What the letter does not address
The letter does not cite a section or subsection of the bill, does not state a dollar figure, and does not comment on the bill's disclosure, content-restriction, minor-protection, crisis-protocol or age-assurance provisions. It names no company and no lobbying or drafting process. It does not say which changes would make a revised bill acceptable beyond the reference to "meaningful liability."
Correspondence with the bill text
Each objection corresponds to a provision of new A.R.S. § 18-802 as the bill passed the Legislature (Arizona HB 2311 — Bill Text (Senate Engrossed with Farnsworth Floor Amendment #2, 2026)):
| Objection in the letter | Provision of the bill |
|---|---|
| Damages limited to "a drop in the bucket for large corporations" | § 18-802(M): an operator that violates the chapter is subject to an injunction and liable for "the greater of" actual damages or "civil penalties of $1,000 per violation, not to exceed $500,000 per operator" |
| Families barred from "bringing their own lawsuits" | § 18-802(N): a violation is punishable by a civil penalty "to be sought by the attorney general only," and the section "does not create a private right of action to enforce this section or to support a private right of action under any other law" |
| The state's hands tied "in an unprecedented manner" | § 18-802(N): the attorney general "may not adopt a rule or any guidance or enforcement action or enter into a settlement agreement" that expands a requirement beyond those "expressly included" in the section, "including a requirement for identity verification or bulk data reporting" |
The $500,000 per-operator ceiling and the attorney-general-only enforcement clause appear in the bill as introduced (Source: azleg.gov). The limit on the attorney general's rules, guidance, enforcement actions and settlements was added by a Senate floor amendment adopted in the Additional Committee of the Whole on June 9, 2026 (Source: azleg.gov). The bill also provided, in § 18-802(O)(1), that it did not create liability for the developer of an AI model for a violation by a conversational AI service that a third-party operator makes available (Arizona HB 2311 — Bill Text (Senate Engrossed with Farnsworth Floor Amendment #2, 2026)); the letter does not mention that provision.
The Arizona Senate's research staff summarized the veto message in its "As Vetoed" fact sheet of June 24, 2026 as stating that the bill "prohibits families from bringing lawsuits, limits damages to families and restricts the state's ability to bring actions" (Source: azleg.gov).
Context
The letter was one of the veto letters issued with the Governor's legislative action of June 19, 2026. Two other bills with "artificial intelligence" in their short titles were vetoed the same day: HB 2592 ("artificial intelligence; state agencies; rules") and HB 4005 ("artificial intelligence; course; public schools") (Source: azgovernor.gov).
Reception
NPR quoted the letter in an investigation published September 18, 2026 into state chatbot-safety bills, citing it as an example of "tech-friendly chatbot bills" that "did not advance to become laws." The same report states that Google lobbyists registered in support of chatbot bills in Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska and Arizona, according to lobbying disclosure records in those states, and that chatbot bills introduced in at least ten states in 2026 carried similar language (Source: npr.org). Those findings are NPR's; the letter itself says nothing about who drafted or lobbied for HB 2311. See Colorado HB 26-1263 (Chatbot Safety Act) for the Colorado act at the center of NPR's account.
Provenance
Retrieved from the Arizona State Legislature's repository of governors' letters at azleg.gov. The PDF is a scan whose document properties carry a scanner-generated title with a date component matching the letter's date. The letter runs from the date line through the carbon-copy list and the Governor's office address; it is transcribed in full in the raw file. The Legislature's bill-status record lists the Governor's action on HB 2311 as "Vetoed" on June 19, 2026 (Source: apps.azleg.gov).
Relationships
- related: Arizona HB 2311 (artificial intelligence service; disclosures; requirements) — the bill the letter vetoes
- depends-on: Arizona HB 2311 — Bill Text (Senate Engrossed with Farnsworth Floor Amendment #2, 2026) — the bill text whose subsections (M) and (N) the letter's objections correspond to
- related: Katie Hobbs — the author
- supports: AI Liability — a governor rejecting a chatbot bill on the ground that its remedies shield companies from liability
- related: Colorado HB 26-1263 (Chatbot Safety Act) — an enacted chatbot statute of the same session whose enforcement also runs solely through the attorney general
- related: AI Companions, AI and Children — the harms the bill addressed
- related: State-Level AI Regulation