The Data Center Digest identifies eleven federal bills currently moving through Congress that, taken together, would create an effective moratorium on large-scale U.S. data center development. The most aggressive measures are companion bills from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (HB9442) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (SB4214), which would halt all new construction until Congress passes AI safety legislation, a standard with no agreed-upon definition or timeline. Additional bills would force facilities over 20 megawatts to generate their own power under the GRID Act (SB3852), require 180 days of advance public notice before groundbreaking, mandate quarterly environmental disclosures, and commission studies projected to take up to 18 months. The sequencing is the critical issue: moratoriums would freeze construction while studies run, and study findings would likely trigger further restrictions before the freeze could be lifted.
If enacted together, the bills would require developers to clear a permitting process that includes 180 days of advance public notice, on-site power generation, full grid infrastructure cost recovery, and NDA prohibitions with government entities, conditions that would make large-scale development economically unviable in most U.S. markets. The package represents the most coordinated federal legislative effort to restrict data center siting and operation in the industry's history. Industry stakeholders and policymakers tracking AI infrastructure capacity will need to monitor how these bills interact, not just whether any individual measure advances.