Bill stops data centers from being built on federal land.
S. 5658 — A bill to prohibit the construction of data centers on Federal land, and for other purposes. · Filed by Ron Wyden (D-OR) · Introduced Sep 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill bans building data centers on federal land. The Forest Service and Interior Department manage this land. Tribal lands are exempt from this ban. When the federal government sells or transfers land, it must include a special rule. That rule lets the government take the land back. This happens if someone tries to use it for a data center. Congress can override this rule by voting to allow it.
Who it affects
Citizens who use federal land for recreation and conservation. Data center companies that want to build on federal land. Tribal nations, which can still build data centers on their own land.
One thing to notice
Tribal lands are allowed to have data centers, but other federal land is not. This creates different rules for tribal nations and the rest of the federal government.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Sep 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- federal land — Land owned and managed by the U.S. government.
- data center — A large building that stores computer servers and equipment.
- tribal lands — Land owned and governed by Native American nations.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,383 characters) on Oct 13, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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