Bill pauses new AI data centers until Congress passes safety laws.
H.R. 9442 — Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act · Filed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) · 16 cosponsors · Introduced Jun 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill stops companies from building or expanding large AI data centers. Large means 20 or more megawatts of power. The pause lasts until Congress passes laws about AI safety. The laws must also cover job protection and sharing AI profits. The Department of Energy must report every three months on all AI data centers. The Commerce Department must limit hardware sales for AI. Sales go only to countries with strong AI safety rules.
Who it affects
Workers and communities worry about AI safety and job loss. AI companies and hardware makers would face delays and new rules. Other countries that buy computer hardware would face limits.
One thing to notice
The bill pauses AI data centers until Congress passes certain laws. The bill does not say what those laws must do.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
16 cosponsors: 16 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 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $320,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 42 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who sponsored the bill, received $30,651 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Business Software Alliance — $320,000 in 1 report
- Network — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- data centers — Large buildings full of computers that store and process information.
- megawatts — Units that measure how much power something uses.
- Department of Energy — The part of government that handles power and energy matters.
- Commerce Department — The part of government that handles trade and business.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
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 14,206 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 2026-09-17.
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