Democratic lawmakers call for data center moratorium and AI pause

After the US midterm elections on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders called for a national moratorium on data centers, and Rep. Yassamin Ansari said pausing AI development should be a priority for the incoming Democratic House majority. The calls followed local votes on data center restrictions and campaign messages about the facilities. Democrats’ Senate margin and President Donald Trump’s veto power could limit their ability to enact federal policy, economists told DW.

What Democrats are proposing

Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, cited local referendums approving data center restrictions in a post on X after the results. “National data center moratorium now,” he wrote, arguing that voters did not want technology companies damaging the environment, reducing jobs or threatening humanity’s future. Ansari, a Democrat from Arizona, wrote that pausing AI development should be a top priority for the large Democratic House majority on its first day. Rep. Greg Casar, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, amplified her post and agreed.

Voter concerns and limits on federal action

A CNBC Voter Poll cited by the network found that 56% of voters considered AI and data centers a crucial or major factor in their ballot decision. Among those voters, 65% said they voted for a Democratic congressional candidate. The poll records respondents’ reported priorities; it does not establish that the issue caused the election result.

The new calls do not change federal policy. Economist Stephen Brown of Capital Economics said in a note cited by DW that Democrats would lack a filibuster-proof Senate majority and that Trump could veto legislation, limiting the near-term policy outlook. Jacob Funk Kirkegaard, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a senior fellow at Bruegel, told DW that local opposition could make data centers harder to build and affect technology company valuations. He said the election showed that the political basis for rapid AI growth was shaky.

DW reported that markets rebounded after initially moving lower following the election. Kirkegaard described construction and valuation effects as possible consequences of local opposition, while the federal restrictions discussed by Sanders and Ansari remain proposals.