Congress pauses AI data centers—but only if it passes undefined safety laws first.
H.R. 9442 — Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act · Filed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) · 20 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill imposes a nationwide moratorium on construction or expansion of large artificial intelligence data centers (defined as facilities with 20+ megawatts of power capacity or specialized cooling systems) until Congress passes laws requiring federal pre-approval of AI products, policies to prevent job displacement, wealth-sharing from AI gains, and community approval rights for new data centers. It also directs the Department of Energy to report quarterly on all AI data centers and requires the Commerce Department to restrict exports of computing hardware used for AI development to countries lacking comparable AI safety regulations.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a construction freeze on large AI data centers pending undefined legislative preconditions, combined with hardware export restrictions. It is not primarily a safety-focused regulatory framework but rather a blunt pause mechanism tied to future legislation that does not yet exist.
What the text implies
- The moratorium's termination depends on passage of laws with vague criteria ('safe and effective' AI, 'shared wealth')—Congress may never pass legislation meeting these undefined standards, making the moratorium indefinite.
- Export controls on computing hardware may increase costs for non-AI semiconductor applications (medical devices, automotive, consumer electronics) if enforcement is broad or compliance is uncertain.
- Quarterly reporting requirements on all AI data centers create a new federal surveillance and subpoena power over private infrastructure, with no sunset clause or privacy protections for proprietary data.
- The bill does not define how 'comparable' foreign AI regulations must be, creating potential for unilateral U.S. trade restrictions and retaliatory export controls from other nations.
- Community approval rights for data centers may be weaponized by local opposition to any large infrastructure project, regardless of actual AI safety risk, if the bill's definition of 'affected communities' is broad.
Who it affects
The bill addresses legitimate public concerns about AI safety, job displacement, and environmental impact—issues that affect ordinary workers and communities. However, the moratorium mechanism is blunt and may delay beneficial AI applications while the undefined preconditions (what constitutes 'safe' AI, how to 'share wealth') remain unspecified, creating regulatory uncertainty. The export controls may protect domestic AI leadership but could raise hardware costs for consumers and businesses.
Who stands to gain
- Domestic AI companies (by restricting foreign competition via export controls)
- Labor unions (by mandating union jobs and prevailing wages)
- Environmental consulting firms (by requiring extensive environmental monitoring)
Named in the bill
Department of Energy (SecDOE), Department of Commerce (SecDOC), Elon Musk / xAI, Anthropic (Dario Amodei), Google DeepMind (Demis Hassabis), OpenAI (Sam Altman), Microsoft AI (Mustafa Suleyman), Amazon, Meta (Mark Zuckerberg), Apple (Steve Wozniak), Export Control Reform Act of 2018, AMD, HPE, CSCO, CTSH, VRSN (semiconductor/infrastructure vendors)
Where it stands
20 cosponsors: 20 Democrats.
- Jun 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jun 24, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Foreign Affairs and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $320,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 42 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the sponsor, reported $35,650 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Business Software Alliance — $320,000 on 1 filing
- Network — $0 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the full bill text on Jul 2, 2026; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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