WASHINGTON—In response to the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act, introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY14), the Center for Data Innovation issued the following statement from Senior Policy Manager Hodan Omaar:
This bill justifies a moratorium based on several well-worn anxieties—that AI is an existential threat, that data centers burden the pocketbooks of American families, and that they undermine jobs—but none of these, pursued in good faith, lead to halting data center construction. It is clear that the authors started with the moratorium and then cast a net of disparate fears wide enough to build support for it.
The AI safety reasoning illustrates this most clearly. In one breath, Senator Sanders describes tech billionaires as self-interested and inherently untrustworthy; in the next, his bill relies on their words of warning about civilizational collapse to justify shutting down data centers. It is unclear why the public should discount everything tech billionaires say except when their words can be recruited to fill gaps in a precarious argument.
If AI safety were a real animating concern, the policy would focus on model evaluations, red teaming, and transparency requirements. If rising utility bills were the true target, the bill would address the market design flaws and cost-allocation models that actually drive rates. And if jobs were the priority, Congress would be doing what it takes to ensure the tens of billions in investment these facilities bring in become high-capital anchors of local industrial bases, rather than legislating them out of existence.
Congress should not mistake a grab bag of loosely related fears for a legitimate case for a moratorium. If these challenges are real, they deserve solutions that actually address them—not a construction freeze that only undermines the American digital economy.
Contact: Nicole Hinojosa, press@datainnovation.org
