S. 4214

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4214 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4214

To impose a moratorium on the construction of new data centers until 
legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of 
artificial intelligence.

_______________________________________________________________________

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

March 25, 2026

Mr. Sanders introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

A BILL

To impose a moratorium on the construction of new data centers until 
legislation is enacted that safeguards the public from the dangers of 
artificial intelligence.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the ``Artificial Intelligence Data Center 
Moratorium Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

Congress finds that--
(1) leading experts and industry leaders have warned about 
catastrophic consequences from unchecked artificial 
intelligence development and deployment, including--
(A) Elon Musk, the wealthiest person alive, and 
worth $826,600,000,000 as of the date of introduction 
of this Act, who stated that ``AI and robots will 
replace all jobs. Working will be optional.'' and that 
artificial intelligence is akin to ``summoning the 
demon'';
(B) Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, who 
predicted that ``AI could displace half of all entry-
level white collar jobs in the next 1 to 5 years.'' and 
that ``humanity is about to be handed almost 
unimaginable power, and it is deeply unclear whether 
our social, political, and technological systems 
possess the maturity to wield it.'';
(C) Demis Hassabis, the head of Google's Deepmind, 
who stated that the AI revolution will be 10 times 
bigger than the industrial revolution and 10 times 
faster;
(D) Jeff Bezos, the fourth-richest person in the 
world and worth $233,000,000,000 as of the date of 
introduction of this Act, who has reportedly pushed his 
staff for years to think big and envision what it would 
take for Amazon to fully automate its operations with 
plans to replace at least 600,000 warehouse workers 
with robots;
(E) Bill Gates, worth $101,000,000,000 as of the 
date of introduction of this Act, who predicted that 
humans ``won't be needed for most things,'' such as 
manufacturing products, delivering packages, or growing 
food over the next decade due to artificial 
intelligence;
(F) Mustafa Suleyman, the CEO of Microsoft AI, who 
said that most white-collar work ``will be fully 
automated by an AI within the next 12 to 18 months'';
(G) Jim Farley, the CEO of Ford, who predicted that 
artificial intelligence will eliminate ``literally half 
of all white-collar jobs in the U.S.'' within the next 
decade;
(H) Larry Ellison, the sixth-richest person in the 
world and worth $203,000,000,000 as of the date of 
introduction of this Act, who said that there will be 
an artificial intelligence-powered surveillance state 
where ``citizens will be on their best behavior, 
because we're constantly recording and reporting 
everything that is going on.'';
(I) Dr. Geoffrey Hinton, considered to be the 
``godfather'' of artificial intelligence, who stated 
that he believes there is a ``10 to 20 percent chance 
[for artificial intelligence] to wipe us out.''; and
(J) Mark Zuckerberg, the fifth-richest person in 
the world and worth $214,000,000,000 as of the date of 
introduction of this Act, is building a data center in 
the State of Louisiana that is the size of Manhattan 
and will use 3 times the quantity of electricity that 
the entire city of New Orleans uses every year; and
(2) leading experts and the heads of the major artificial 
intelligence companies have called for regulation and 
reasonable pauses to the development of artificial intelligence 
to ensure the safety of humanity, including--
(A) Elon Musk, the head of xAI, who stated--
(i) in 2018 the following: ``Mark my words. 
AI is far more dangerous than nukes. So why do 
we have no regulatory oversight? This is 
insane.''; and
(ii) in 2025 that he had ``a lot of AI 
nightmares'' and would ``certainly slow down AI 
and robotics'' if he could;
(B) Demis Hassabis, the head of Google's Deepmind, 
who said in 2026 that he would support an AI pause if 
he knew other countries and companies also paused 
development;
(C) Dario Amodei, the head of Anthropic, who said 
in 2026 that he would be ``absolutely in favor of 
trying'' to slow down AI development if other countries 
also slowed down;
(D) Sam Altman, the head of OpenAI, who, in 2023, 
wrote that ``we need some degree of coordination among 
the leading development efforts to ensure that the 
development of superintelligence occurs in a manner 
that allows us to both maintain safety and help smooth 
integration of these systems with society'' and that 
``an effective global regulatory framework including 
democratic governance'' is needed;
(E) more than 1,000 business leaders in the Big 
Tech industry, prominent scientists, and artificial 
intelligence researchers and academics, including Elon 
Musk, Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), and Evan 
Sharp (co-founder of Pinterest), who, in March 2023, 
cosigned an open letter entitled ``Pause Giant AI 
Experiments'' which stated the following: ``We must ask 
ourselves: Should we let machines flood our information 
channels with propaganda and untruth? Should we 
automate away all the jobs, including the fulfilling 
ones? Should we develop nonhuman minds that might 
eventually outnumber, outsmart, obsolete and replace 
us? Should we risk loss of control of our civilization? 
Such decisions must not be delegated to unelected tech 
leaders. . .Therefore, we call on all AI labs to 
immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of 
AI systems more powerful than GPT-4. This pause should 
be public and verifiable, and include all key actors. 
If such a pause cannot be enacted quickly, governments 
should step in and institute a moratorium.''; and
(F) artificial intelligence pioneers Geoffrey 
Hinton and Yoshua Bengio and other technology leaders, 
who have called for ``a prohibition on the development 
of superintelligence, not lifted before there is broad 
scientific consensus that it will be done safely and 
controllably, and strong public buy-in''.

SEC. 3. MORATORIUM ON CONSTRUCTION OF NEW ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE DATA 
CENTERS.

(a) Definition of Artificial Intelligence Data Center.--In this 
section, the term ``artificial intelligence data center'' means all the 
buildings, equipment, structures, and other stationary items, such as 
server racks, that--
(1) are located on a single site or on contiguous, 
adjacent, or otherwise connected sites;
(2) are owned or operated by the same entity or by any 
entity that controls, is controlled by, or is under the common 
control of that entity, regardless of whether the site is a 
single-occupant or multi-occupant facility; and
(3)(A) are used for the development or operation of 
artificial intelligence models at scale; or
(B)(i) have a maximum rated power capacity or total peak 
power load in excess of 20 megawatts; and
(ii) are designed or equipped--
(I) to deliver 20 kilowatts or more of electrical 
power to a single server rack; or
(II) to utilize cooling systems that circulate 
liquid to individual hardware components or submerge 
electronic hardware in liquid.
(b) Moratorium.--Beginning on the date of enactment of this Act, 
the construction or upgrading of new or existing artificial 
intelligence data centers may not commence or proceed until--
(1) 1 or more laws are enacted that ensure that--
(A) the Federal Government shall review and approve 
artificial intelligence products before those products 
are released, for the purpose of ensuring that those 
products are safe and effective and do not threaten the 
health and well-being of working families, privacy and 
civil rights, and the future of humanity;
(B) the economic gains of artificial intelligence 
and robotics will benefit workers, not just the wealthy 
owners of Big Tech companies, including by--
(i) putting policies in place to prevent 
job displacement due to artificial 
intelligence; and
(ii) ensuring the wealth generated by those 
companies is shared with the people of the 
United States; and
(C) with respect to any artificial intelligence 
data center built or upgraded after the termination of 
the moratorium under this subsection--
(i) the artificial intelligence data center 
does not increase utility or electricity bills 
of consumers;
(ii) the artificial intelligence data 
center does not exacerbate the threat of 
climate change or harm the environment;
(iii) communities that would be affected by 
the artificial intelligence data center are 
empowered to approve or reject the construction 
or upgrading of that artificial intelligence 
data center;
(iv) no government subsidy is provided for 
the construction, upgrading, or operation of 
that artificial intelligence data center; and
(v) the artificial intelligence data center 
creates union jobs with strong labor standards, 
including payment of prevailing wages and use 
of registered apprenticeship programs and 
project labor agreements; and
(2) a provision in the 1 or more laws described in 
paragraph (1) expressly terminates the moratorium under this 
subsection.
(c) Reports.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Energy shall--
(A) submit to Congress quarterly reports on 
artificial intelligence data centers; and
(B) make those quarterly reports publicly available 
on the website of the Department of Energy.
(2) Contents.--A report submitted by the Secretary of 
Energy under paragraph (1) shall include, at a minimum, for the 
period covered by the report and with respect to each 
artificial intelligence data center--
(A) all financial vehicles involved in the 
operation of the artificial intelligence data center;
(B) the water usage of the artificial intelligence 
data center;
(C) the energy usage and infrastructure needs of 
the artificial intelligence data center;
(D) the on- and off-site greenhouse gas emissions 
of the artificial intelligence data center, including 
the results of fenceline air quality monitoring;
(E) the wastewater discharge and thermal outputs of 
the artificial intelligence data center;
(F) the cooling chemicals used at the artificial 
intelligence data center;
(G) the noise levels at the artificial intelligence 
data center;
(H) information on wages and benefits provided to 
workers at the artificial intelligence data center;
(I) the number of temporary and permanent jobs 
created at the artificial intelligence data center;
(J) agreements entered into by the artificial 
intelligence data center relating to land acquisitions, 
utilities, or government entities, if any; and
(K) a certification that the artificial 
intelligence data center has not utilized any Federal, 
State, or local subsidies.
(3) Verification.--The Secretary of Energy may obtain and 
verify information relating to the moratorium under subsection 
(b) and reporting requirements described in paragraph (2), 
including by--
(A) issuing subpoenas;
(B) requiring written interrogatories;
(C) conducting inspections; and
(D) conditioning future permitting on compliance 
with this section.

SEC. 4. EXPORT CONTROLS ON COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE HARDWARE.

(a) Definitions.--In this section:
(1) Computing infrastructure hardware.--The term 
``computing infrastructure hardware'' means semiconductors, 
integrated circuits, and products containing integrated 
circuits, including computers, networking equipment, and data 
storage systems.
(2) Export; in-country transfer; reexport.--The terms 
``export'', ``in-country transfer'', and ``reexport'' have the 
meanings given those terms in section 1742 of the Export 
Control Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4801).
(b) Export Controls.--On and after the date of the enactment of 
this Act, the Secretary of Commerce shall prohibit the export, 
reexport, or in-country transfer of computing infrastructure hardware 
for an end-use described in subsection (c)--
(1) to or in any country that does not have in effect 
statutes or regulations that are comparable to the laws 
described in section 3(b)(1); or
(2) to any person in a country described in paragraph (1).
(c) End-Uses Described.--An end-use referred to in subsection (b) 
is use--
(1) in an artificial intelligence data center; or
(2) otherwise in the training or deployment of artificial 
intelligence models at scale.
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