By Hamza Faisal
Democrats are planning a flood of new legislation targeting artificial intelligence and data-center development when they take control of the US Congress in January, lawmakers, congressional aides and advocates told Reuters.
The plans would mark a sharp shift from the Republican-led Congress, which largely focused on promoting AI development and declined to pass laws restricting the technology — even as voters turned against the buildout of data centers and their power demands.
The bills would shield consumers from rising electricity costs tied to data centers, requiring independent testing of advanced AI systems, and clarifying when AI companies can be held liable for harm caused by their products.
What the bills would cover
Senator Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat who is expected to become majority leader, said on Thursday at an event in Washington that protecting consumers from higher energy costs linked to the rapid expansion of data centers would be among his priorities next year.
Representative Lori Trahan of Massachusetts, one of the Democratic Party's leading voices on AI policy, plans to push legislation requiring independent experts to evaluate leading AI models against safety standards, her deputy chief of staff Francis Grubar said. Trahan will also pursue legislation clarifying that companies can be held responsible when AI systems act in harmful ways.
Representative Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from California who is seeking to chair the House Science Committee, said Democrats would focus on developing "responsible regulations for AI while also fostering innovation."
Abdul El-Sayed, a Michigan Democrat who won a Senate seat on Tuesday, called during his campaign for an independent agency to oversee AI regulation, with the power to police the tech companies developing the technology.
Hearings and scrutiny of the big AI labs
Democrats also plan to use their new committee authority to intensify scrutiny of the industry's most powerful companies. Representative Greg Casar, a Texas Democrat who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said this week that AI executives should be called to testify under oath.
Lofgren and other Democratic House committee leaders already asked OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, Alphabet's Google and SpaceX in October to detail their security practices and report instances of their AI tools taking actions their designers did not intend.
Public concern is already high. Most US voters think the Trump administration and Congress are not taking the risks of AI seriously enough and want the government to write new regulations, according to a Reuters poll published in October. Voters also backed restrictions on data-center development in dozens of local ballot measures on November 3.
Steep odds in the White House
Any legislation would face steep odds while Republican President Donald Trump remains in the White House. He has repeatedly dismissed calls to write mandatory rules for AI, and on Friday said he would work with US states that "want to become RICH" by embracing AI, without offering details.
But Democrats said control of congressional committees would give the party a platform to advance proposals, compel testimony and build support for action if AI systems cause real-world harm.
Technology shares sold off sharply on Thursday on concerns that a new Congress will slow AI development, and on fears that the massive spending on AI infrastructure will not pay off.
A crisis could build enough support to overcome presidential opposition, said Ed Mills of Raymond James. "The probability of legislation is much higher than people anticipate," he said. Congress can override a presidential veto with the backing of two-thirds of lawmakers in both chambers, and Democrats could also try to insert AI regulation into routine bills that must pass Congress each year.
