A bill introduced in the House last month would not just bar new AI data centers from federal land: it would order the government to start tearing down the ones already there, with demolition explicitly on the table.
The legislation, introduced July 23 by Representative Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, prohibits the construction or operation of AI data centers and their associated infrastructure on any territory the federal government owns or administers, military bases included. Tribal trust lands are carved out. The ban would override any other provision of law, and it reaches beyond the buildings themselves: the definition of associated infrastructure pulls in the utility grid around a site, from power lines and substations to gas plants, pipelines, backup generators, water mains, and cooling loops.
The retroactive part is the striking piece. Within 30 days of enactment, every federal agency that operates, leases, or is building an AI data center on federal land would have to halt operations and begin removal, and demolition or deconstruction is explicitly authorized. Cleanup would have to follow CERCLA, the federal Superfund statute governing hazardous sites, along with any applicable restoration requirements. The bill’s coverage test targets hyperscale, high-density AI campuses rather than ordinary server rooms: a site is covered if it is devoted to developing or running AI models at scale, or if it draws more than 20 megawatts and either feeds 20 kilowatts or more to a single rack or relies on liquid cooling.
The bill lands against a backdrop of federal land already moving toward AI data centers. In June, the Bureau of Land Management signed off on what is thought to be the first approval of a data center on public land, a 167-megawatt project in Boulder City, Nevada, by reusing a 2023 solar project approval rather than running a fresh environmental review. Conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, filed an appeal, joined by the Sierra Club. The Pentagon asked Congress for $30 billion in May to build hyperscale AI data centers for military use, and the Energy Department has flagged as many as 16 federal locations for data center and AI infrastructure. The military push has drawn backlash from communities and lawmakers over its national-security rationale, as Mother Jones reported.
Tlaib, who helped found the People’s Environmental Justice Caucus, framed the bill around the local costs of AI infrastructure, citing Bloomberg analysis that data centers can push up electricity prices in surrounding communities by as much as 267 percent. Five House Democrats are cosponsoring: Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey. Four advocacy groups have lined up behind it: Win Without War, Food & Water Watch, the Climate Justice Alliance, and the Center for Biological Diversity. The bill sits with the House Natural Resources Committee.
The measure has little chance of becoming law in a divided Congress, but it sharpens the political divide over where AI infrastructure gets built. A separate Senate proposal from Bernie Sanders, the AI Data Center Moratorium Act, would pause all new data center construction until federal safeguards are enacted. The House bill takes the opposite stance on federal land specifically: no new facilities, and the ones already approved come down.
Sources: Rep. Tlaib introduces a bill to ban AI data centers on federal lands (Tlaib House Office press release, Jul 23, 2026); Text of H.R. 9939 (GovTrack, Jul 23, 2026); Appeal Challenges Public Lands Data Center in Nevada (Center for Biological Diversity, Jul 27, 2026); Trump admin swaps out solar project for data center on BLM land (Center for Western Priorities, Jul 27, 2026); Trump’s Push to Build Data Centers for the US Military (Mother Jones, Jul 25, 2026)