Sen. Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) propose AI Data Center Moratorium Act

# Sen. Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) propose AI Data Center Moratorium Act
By Matrice Jacobine
Published: 2026-03-26
The text of the bill can be found [here](https://www.sanders.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/Artificial-Intelligence-Data-Center-Moratorium-Act-Section-by-Section.pdf). It begins by citing the warnings of AI company CEOs and deep learning pioneers Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio, the 2023 FLI open letter calling for a 6-month pause, and the 2025 FLI statement on superintelligence. The bill would prohibits the construction or upgrading of AI datacenters until Congress pass an AI safety law aimed at preventing AI companies "from releasing harmful products into the world that threaten the health and well-being of working families, our privacy and civil rights, and the future of humanity". It would also impose export controls for advanced chips "to any country or entity that does not have laws and regulations in place to protect humanity from AI safety concerns and existential risks, protect workers, and protect the environment". Sen. Sanders and Rep. Ocasio-Cortez announced the bill in a live press conference:

  

  

+++ **Transcript**

Sen. Bernie Sanders
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Thank you all for being here. The Congresswoman and I are going to be chatting about an enormously important issue. Let me start off by saying that in my view, and in the view of people who know a lot more about this issue than I do, we are at the beginning of the most profound technological revolution in world history — a revolution that will bring unimaginable changes to our society in a relatively short period of time.

Artificial intelligence and robotics will impact our economy, our democracy, our privacy rights, our emotional well-being, our environment, and even our very survival as human beings on this planet. The scale, scope, and speed of this transformation will be unprecedented.

According to Demis Hassabis, who is the head of Google DeepMind, the AI revolution will be ten times bigger than the industrial revolution and ten times faster — meaning AI and robotics will have a hundred times the impact of what the industrial revolution did.

And it's not just what AI companies are saying, it's what they are doing. This year alone, four major AI companies are expected to spend roughly $670 billion building data centers, and tens of billions more on research and development.

Despite the extraordinary importance of this issue and its impact on every man, woman, and child in this country, AI has received far too little serious discussion here in our nation's capital. I fear that Congress is totally unprepared for the magnitude of the changes that are already taking place.

While Congress has not paid enough attention to this issue, the American people have. According to a recent poll, 79% of voters are concerned that the government does not have a plan to protect workers from AI job losses. That same poll also found that 56% of voters are c

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