YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentCorporate BenefitsTransparency & AccountabilityAll big data-center building would stop on day one — and stay stopped until Congress passes new AI laws.
Environment
Large data centers pull heavy electricity and use water to cool their machines. While the freeze holds, no new site could be built or expanded, so that draw would stop growing.
Corporate Benefits
Once the law took effect, no company could start or keep building or upgrading these sites. The pause ends only when Congress passes new AI laws and writes in that the pause is over.
The Commerce Department would have to block shipments of chips, servers, and network gear meant for AI data centers or large-scale AI work. The block covers any country that lacks laws like the ones this measure demands.
Transparency & Accountability
The Energy Department would post a report on its website four times a year. It would cover each center's money backers, water and power use, emissions, wastewater, cooling chemicals, noise, pay, and job counts.
The Energy Department could demand records, send written questions, and inspect sites to check that the freeze is being followed. It could also tie future permits to whether a company obeyed this law.
More about this bill
Building or expanding a big data center would have to stop the day this became law. The freeze would cover work already underway, not just new projects. It would apply to any site used to develop or run artificial intelligence at scale. It would also cover any site drawing more than 20 megawatts that is built for dense or liquid-cooled server racks. There is no end date. The freeze would lift only after Congress passes new laws on artificial intelligence. Those laws would have to screen AI products for safety before release. They would have to keep AI from costing people their jobs. For any center built later, they would have to protect utility bills and the environment. They would have to let the local community approve or reject the site. They would have to bar public subsidies and require union jobs at prevailing wages. And they would have to say plainly that the freeze is over. Selling advanced chips and servers abroad would also get harder. Companies could not ship that gear for AI use to a country without laws like those. Meanwhile, the Energy Department would post public reports every three months on each data center. The reports would cover power, water, emissions, noise, wages, and jobs.
Congressional Summary
Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium ActThis bill prohibits building or upgrading artificial intelligence (AI) data centers until laws regulating AI and AI data centers are enacted. It also restricts the export of AI-related computing hardware to countries without similar laws in effect.Specifically, no AI data center may be constructed or upgraded until laws are enacted (1) subjecting AI products to prerelease federal review and approval for safety and effectiveness, and (2) ensuring that AI-related economic gains benefit workers and the people of the United States (including by preventing AI-related job loss). Further, with respect to AI data centers built or upgraded after the moratorium ends, these laws must ensuresuch centers do not increase consumers’ utility bills and do not harm the environment;affected communities are empowered to approve or reject construction or upgrades;such centers create union jobs subject to labor standards; andno government subsidy is provided for the construction, upgrade, or operation of such centers.Under the bill, the term AI data center includes collocated structures and equipment under common ownership or control used for AI development or operation that meet certain power and design specifications.Additionally, the Department of Commerce must prohibit the export, reexport, or in-country transfer of specified computing hardware for AI-related use to any country that does not have comparable laws or regulations in effect.Finally, the Department of Energy must periodically report on AI data centers’ funding sources, energy and water use, and labor.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- Senate
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in Senate
- Action Date
- 2026-03-25
- Date Added
- 2026-09-01
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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