Sponsors
The bill aims to strengthen local control, environmental transparency, worker protections, and national-security safeguards around AI infrastructure and exports, but does so through moratoria, stringent approvals, and export controls that will delay projects, raise costs, and risk economic and diplomatic backlash.
Local communities (urban and rural) gain explicit authority to approve or reject new or upgraded AI data centers in their areas, increasing local control over siting decisions.
Households and taxpayers are protected from being charged higher utility bills for new AI data centers built after the moratorium, and environmental impacts (GHG, water, wastewater, thermal outputs, cooling chemicals, noise) must be tracked and made public quarterly, improving transparency and community oversight.
Workers at future AI data centers and broader tech-sector workers could see stronger labor protections and higher job quality (union jobs, prevailing wages, apprenticeships, project labor agreements) while a pause gives students and future workers more time to adapt to potential job-displacement risks.
The moratorium, community veto authority, premarket approval requirements, labor mandates, and ban on subsidies for post-moratorium centers will delay projects, raise development costs, reduce local economic incentives, and likely deter private investment in AI infrastructure.
Export controls on high-end AI hardware could reduce U.S. manufacturers' export revenue and market access, disrupt global supply chains, and invite retaliatory trade or technology restrictions that harm broader U.S. tech commerce and jobs.
New reporting, verification, and export-control compliance obligations will impose significant administrative and compliance costs on operators and firms, which can increase operating costs that may be passed to consumers and complicate legitimate commercial deployments.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced March 25, 2026 by Bernard Sanders · Last progress March 25, 2026
Imposes a moratorium on building/upgrading large AI data centers until Congress enacts laws requiring federal AI safety review, worker and environmental protections, community approval, and restricts exports of key AI hardware to countries without comparable laws.
Imposes an immediate ban on starting or continuing construction or upgrades of large "artificial intelligence data centers" until Congress passes new laws that set federal AI safety reviews, economic and labor protections, community approval rights, and environmental and utility safeguards. Requires the Energy Department to publish quarterly, detailed reports on each AI data center and gives the Department inspection and subpoena powers to verify data. Also directs the Commerce Department to block exports and in-country transfers of key computing hardware to countries (and people in those countries) that do not have laws comparable to the new U.S. requirements.