United StatesIntroduced
H.R. 9442 was introduced on 24 June 2026 and referred to two House committees.
Open sourceCanonical policy ask · Compute & energy
Pause new large AI data centres pending resource and security review
Pause construction or upgrading of covered AI data centres until Congress enacts specified safeguards and expressly terminates the moratorium.
Current standingintroduced
Jurisdiction map
Current legal positionPolicy vehicles
Where the ask appearsPolicy lineage
Events and deadlines- 2026-06-24AI Data Center Moratorium Act introduced in the House
H.R. 9442 was introduced and referred to House committees.
Evidence ledger
Explained source passagesDirect sourceOpen evidence record
H.R. 9442 proposes a conditional moratorium on AI data centres
The bill would stop construction or upgrading of covered facilities until specified safeguards are enacted and Congress expressly ends the pause.
The construction or upgrading of new or existing artificial intelligence data centers may not commence or proceed until—Congress.gov · H.R. 9442 · Section 3(b)
Direct sourceOpen evidence record
H.R. 9442 would require quarterly public infrastructure reporting
The bill directs the Energy Secretary to publish facility-level information on water, energy, emissions, labour and other impacts.
The Secretary of Energy shall— (A) submit to Congress quarterly reports on artificial intelligence data centers; and (B) make those quarterly reports publicly available.Congress.gov · H.R. 9442 · Section 3(c)(1)
Direct sourceOpen evidence record
IEA reports data-centre electricity demand grew 17% in 2025
The IEA executive summary states global data-centre electricity demand grew 17% in 2025 and AI-focused centres grew 50%.
The global electricity demand of data centres – the critical infrastructure for training and running AI models – grew by 17% in 2025, in line with IEA projections. Electricity consumption from AI-focused data centres grew even faster, surging 50% in 2025.International Energy Agency · IEA Key Questions on Energy and AI · Executive summary
Intelligence records
Reported developmentsUnited States · New policy ask
A federal AI data-centre moratorium enters the US debate
H.R. 9442 introduces a direct growth-control ask into Congress. Its significance lies less in near-term passage than in linking AI capacity to electricity, water and national-security constraints.
undefined · Energy measurement
IEA: data-centre electricity demand grew 17% in 2025
The IEA’s Key Questions on Energy and AI executive summary reports 17% growth in data-centre electricity demand in 2025 and 50% growth for AI-focused centres, with a central projection near 950 TWh by 2030.