First Republican Senator Speaks Out: Josh Hawley Calls for Nationwide Pause on Data Center Construction

On November 13, Republican US Senator Josh Hawley from Missouri called for a nationwide moratorium on the construction of new data centers (Data Center Moratorium), becoming the first Republican senator to publicly support this proposal.

Hawley previously listed five priorities for Senate Republicans over the next six weeks on X, including a "moratorium on data center construction," with the others being cuts to Planned Parenthood funding, a pause on fuel taxes, funding for rural hospitals, and passage of the SAVE America Act.

According to Politico, Hawley's spokesperson stated that the moratorium should last until Congress passes a "bill of rights" ensuring that taxpayers' electricity rates will not increase as a result.

In February this year, Hawley co-sponsored the GRID Act with Democratic Senator Blumenthal, which requires new data centers to use power sources independent of the grid and publicly disclose their electricity usage. Previously, Bernie Sanders and AOC had also pushed for legislation to implement a nationwide pause on the construction of AI data centers.