New Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center Construction | WIREDSkip to main contentMenuSECURITYPOLITICSTHE BIG STORYBUSINESSSCIENCECULTUREREVIEWSMenuAccountAccountNewslettersSecurityPoliticsThe Big StoryBusinessScienceCultureReviewsChevronMoreExpandThe Big InterviewMagazineEventsWIRED InsiderWIRED ConsultingNewslettersPodcastsVideoLivestreamsMerchSearchSearchMolly TaftPoliticsMar 25, 2026 9:28 AMNew Bernie Sanders AI Safety Bill Would Halt Data Center ConstructionThe US senator said on Tuesday that a moratorium would give lawmakers time to "ensure that AI is safe." Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will introduce a similar bill in the House in the weeks ahead.Photograph: Selcuk Acar/Getty ImagesCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyCommentLoaderSave StorySave this storyUS Senator Bernie Sanders will introduce a bill Wednesday that aims to put a national moratorium on data center construction “until legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of artificial intelligence.” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will introduce a similar bill in the House in the coming weeks.While it’s highly unlikely that the bill will pass—especially given the Trump administration’s full-throated endorsement of AI, and the massive amount of money the industry is set to spend this year in Washington—the bill marks a new line in the sand for progressives seeking to address both concern around data center construction and the potential harms artificial intelligence may bring.“A moratorium will give us the chance to figure out how to make sure that AI benefits the working families of this country, not just a handful of billionaires who want more and more wealth and more and more power,” Sanders said in a speech on the Hill Tuesday evening. “A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to ensure that AI is safe and effective and prevent the worst outcomes. A moratorium will give us the time to figure out how to make sure AI does not harm our environment or jack up the electric bills that we pay.”Sanders’s bill puts an open-ended moratorium on the construction or upgrading of new and existing data centers used specifically for artificial intelligence—defined in the bill via a series of physical parameters, including energy load above 20 megawatts. The moratorium, the bill states, will end only when laws are enacted that not only prevent data centers from contributing to climate change, harming the environment, and raising electricity bills, but also prevent tech companies from producing products that harm the “health and well-being of working families, privacy and civil rights, and the future of humanity.” Tech companies, the bill states, must ensure that wealth generated from AI is “shared with the people of the United States.” (A separate section forbids the export of computing hardware, including semiconductor chips, to any country that does not have similar laws.)The bill name-checks wealthy tech executives, including xAI’s Elon Musk, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, who have both profited greatly from artificial intelligence and sounded alarms at just how quickly the technology could change society.The urgent push to build out data centers across the US has ignited a wave of opposition over concerns about higher electric bills, water use, energy impacts, and land rights. Recent polling from Pew shows that nearly 40 percent of Americans believe that data centers are bad for the environment and home energy costs, while 30 percent say that they have a negative impact on quality of life for people living nearby. Public opposition to data centers, and the high energy bills they could cause, has played a role in elections in states like Virginia and Georgia, where data center development has accelerated in recent years. Last year, a report found that $98 billion in data center projects had been stalled or canceled due to community pushback in the second quarter of 2025 alone.In December, Sanders became the first national politician to call for a moratorium on data centers, days after a coalition of more than 230 progressive groups sent a letter to Congress calling for a national moratorium. The letter claimed that “rapid, largely unregulated rise of data centers to fuel the AI and crypto frenzy is disrupting communities across the country and threatening Americans’ economic, environmental, climate and water security.”Dozens of cities and counties across the US have introduced local moratoriums on data center development in response to local pushback. At least a dozen state legislatures—in Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming—have introduced state-level moratoriums this year.But Sanders’s bill marks a significant departure from many of these pieces of legislation. The new bill focuses not only on the environmental and community impacts of data centers, but on AI safety as a whole. Since his announcement in December, Sanders has been outspoken about the potential dangers AI poses to society, particularly to workers.“It makes sense to me that his bill is going to focus primarily on that aspect,” says Mitch Jones, the policy and litigation director at Food and Water Watch, an environmental watchdog group which has advised Sanders’s office on the moratorium. Food and Water Watch also convened the December letter from progressive groups.Pew’s polling found that Democrats are more likely to view data centers negatively—but it’s not just national progressives raising concerns. Before Sanders voiced his opposition to data centers, some prominent Republican and MAGA politicians, including representative Thomas Massie, senator Josh Hawley, and then-representative Marjorie Taylor-Greene, were already vocally questioning the data center build-out. Last month, Hawley and Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal introduced a bill to insulate customers from electricity rate hikes due to data centers. In December, Steve Bannon, one of the most influential anti-AI voices in Washington, hosted a segment on his War Room podcast called “Data Centers Are Devouring Public Land.”Many of the bills introduced at the state level were sponsored by Democratic politicians. (Food and Water Watch helped craft the New York bill.) Bills in some states, including Oklahoma, were introduced by Republicans; Georgia’s bill had both Democratic and Republican cosponsors.Florida governor Ron DeSantis has been especially outspoken on the potential harms from both data centers and artificial intelligence. “I don’t think there’s very many people who want to have higher energy bills just so some chatbot can corrupt some 13-year-old kid online,” DeSantis said at an AI roundtable in February. In December, DeSantis endorsed legislation that would have established a bill of rights to protect consumers from potential harms from AI, including prohibiting minors from interacting with AI chatbots without parental consent, as well as a data center proposal to strip subsidies from tech companies and prohibit data centers from raising electricity bills. The resulting AI bill of rights legislation passed the state Senate, but died in the House.Both the White House and Big Tech companies have acknowledged that the push to build out data centers suffers from bad public optics. In March, representatives from top data center developers and AI companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, gathered at the White House to sign a nonbinding agreement intended to make data centers pay “the full cost of their energy and infrastructure” and protect consumers from rate hikes. “Data centers … they need some PR help,” president Donald Trump said at the event. Experts told WIRED that the agreement signed at the White House was largely symbolic, and that some of the key aims of the agreement—including having data centers absorb any additional costs to customers’ bills—are largely out of both the White House and tech companies’ hands.“A moratorium would limit internet capacity, slow critical services, eliminate hundreds of thousands of high-wage jobs, drain billions in local tax revenue, and raise costs for American families and small businesses,” Cy McNeill, the senior director of federal affairs at the Data Center Coalition, an industry group, told WIRED in an email. The industry, McNeill says, “remains committed to working with communities, local officials, state and federal policymakers, and the Administration to ensure the continued responsible development of this industry while protecting families and businesses.”CommentsBack to topTriangleYou Might Also LikeIn your inbox: Upgrade your life with WIRED-tested gearNvidia plans to launch an open-source AI agent platformBig Story: He built the Epstein database—it consumed his lifeShould you leave your phone charging overnight?Watch: How right wing influencers infiltrated the governmentMolly Taft is a senior writer for WIRED, covering climate change, energy, and the environment. Previously, they were a reporter and editor at Drilled, an investigative climate multimedia reporting project. Before that, they wrote about climate change and technology for Gizmodo, and served as a contributing editor for the New ... 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The US Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced a bill advocating for a national moratorium on the construction and upgrading of data centers specifically utilized for artificial intelligence. Simultaneously, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is expected to introduce a similar measure in the House of Representatives within the coming weeks. This legislative action represents a significant shift in the ongoing debate surrounding AI development, driven by concerns extending beyond simple technological advancement and encompassing potential societal harms. Sanders’s rationale centers on the need for legislative oversight to guarantee the safety of artificial intelligence, arguing that unchecked expansion of data centers, particularly those powering AI, poses unacceptable risks to the working class and the environment. The proposed moratorium targets data centers defined by an energy load exceeding 20 megawatts, aiming to mitigate the environmental impact—including energy consumption and associated carbon emissions—and address rising electricity costs linked to these facilities.

The bill's provisions are considerably broad, envisioning a cessation of construction until comprehensive legislation can be enacted to address concerns regarding climate change, environmental damage, and elevated energy bills. Furthermore, Sanders’s measure includes a stipulation prohibiting the export of computing hardware, specifically semiconductor chips, to nations without equivalent regulations pertaining to AI safety and environmental responsibility. The bill’s specificity names prominent tech executives—including Elon Musk’s xAI, Jeff Bezos’s Amazon, Sam Altman’s OpenAI, and Dario Amodei’s Anthropic—as those profiting substantially from AI and exhibiting anxieties regarding its potential for rapid societal disruption. This naming of key figures underscores the perceived concentration of power within the tech industry and the perceived need for greater accountability.

The impetus for this bill stems from escalating public apprehension regarding data centers, bolstered by recent Pew Research Center polling which indicates nearly 40% of Americans view data centers negatively, citing environmental concerns and detrimental impacts on home energy costs. This sentiment has demonstrably influenced political outcomes in states like Virginia and Georgia, where previous data center development projects have faced significant community opposition resulting in substantial project delays or cancellations. Notably, this legislation incorporates elements of opposition from across the political spectrum; prominent Republican figures including Thomas Massie, Josh Hawley, and Marjorie Taylor-Greene have previously voiced concerns about data center expansion, and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal has collaborated with Hawley on a parallel bill aimed at preventing electricity rate hikes associated with these facilities. Beyond the US, the concerns are echoed in state-level moratoriums enacted in Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has been a particularly vocal critic of both data centers and AI, having previously proposed legislation aimed at limiting AI’s impact through consumer protections and restrictions on data center subsidies.

Despite the ambitious scope of Sanders’s bill, industry representatives from data center developers and AI companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Google, have acknowledged public perception challenges. A recent White House event, attended by these corporations, yielded a non-binding agreement aimed at ensuring data centers absorb full energy costs and mitigate rate increases—although experts note that the effectiveness of this agreement remains uncertain. Cy McNeill, the senior director of federal affairs at the Data Center Coalition, highlights the industry’s commitment to collaborative engagement; however, the coalition also emphasizes the potential adverse effects of a moratorium, citing concerns about decreased internet capacity, job losses, revenue reductions, and increased costs for American families and small businesses. Reflecting ongoing debate, the Data Center Coalition maintains a stance advocating for responsible development alongside community engagement and policy alignment, arguing for a measured approach to innovation and growth.