Tag: 120th Congress

  • The First 100 Days: A Technology Agenda for the Next Congress

    By the Founders, Department of Technology | San Diego, California | November 13, 2026

    A new Congress has 100 days to show it can govern the technology buildout instead of reacting to it. Here is a practical agenda that members of either party can sign onto.

    In our last piece, we described five mistakes the previous Congress made on data centers and AI. This one is the to-do list. We built it from items that already have bipartisan footprints, because the fastest agenda is one that members have already voted for, sponsored or said they support. One timing note: bills that do not become law expire when a Congress ends, so even measures that passed one chamber, like the Ratepayer Protection Act, have to be introduced again.

    1. Days 1 to 30: Hold one set of hearings on the whole picture

    Today the pieces of this problem sit in different committees. Energy committees see the grid. Commerce committees see competitiveness. Finance and tax committees see revenue. Each hears from its own witnesses, and nobody hears the tradeoffs.

    Hold a joint hearing series with the same witnesses in the same room: grid operators, state utility regulators, economists, county officials and workers. The evidence on each risk is already strong enough to start. In the largest U.S. grid market, wholesale power prices rose almost 76 percent in a year and the market monitor called the effects irreversible. At the same time, BloombergNEF expects China to add more than six times as much generating capacity as the United States over five years. Members should hear both facts at once.

    2. Days 1 to 45: Reintroduce ratepayer protection and settle the real disagreement

    The Ratepayer Protection Act cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee 52 to 0, passed the House 417 to 3, and then failed a Senate procedural vote 57 to 43 that needed 60. The two sides disagreed about one question: whether states should merely be required to consider making large data centers pay for the grid upgrades built to serve them, or whether the cost allocation should be mandatory, as in the Democratic GRID Savings Act.

    Both positions have a principled basis. Utility regulation has long been a state responsibility, and voluntary pledges have a mixed record. We suggest negotiators look for a middle design: a mandatory core for the very largest new loads, with states keeping flexibility over how to implement it. That is our suggestion, not a settled answer, and the details matter. The point is to have the argument in February rather than the weeks before an election.

    3. Days 30 to 60: Open the deals

    Secret agreements are the issue where public frustration is highest and the policy fix is simplest. Bloomberg Law found that 25 of 31 proposed data center projects in Virginia involved nondisclosure agreements, and that Microsoft says it is working to end any active NDAs governments have signed. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills to ban such agreements, but only Delaware has passed a transparency measure through its legislature, according to MLex. A bipartisan group in Congress has now introduced a federal bill to ban NDAs that keep officials from discussing proposed data center projects, while protecting trade secrets.

    Move that bill. And because Congress’s reach is strongest where federal assets are involved, require public disclosure of any data center deal that touches federal land, federal funds or federal permits.

    4. Days 60 to 90: Ask the revenue question before the layoffs

    We do not know how much AI will displace work, and forecasts vary widely. We do know how exposed the tax base is if it does. A RAND analysis found that 84 percent of federal revenue in 2024 came from individual and payroll taxes, and that losing high-paid white-collar jobs would hurt revenue disproportionately. New York City’s Comptroller has already modeled five AI scenarios for the city’s finances.

    Ask the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office to publish scenario analyses of federal revenue under different displacement paths, and encourage states and counties to do the same. Planning for a range of outcomes is not predicting the worst one.

    5. Days 90 to 100: Name an owner

    Every item above would be easier to carry out, and harder to forget, if someone were accountable for them together. Begin by creating a standing joint committee with jurisdiction over the whole technology buildout. Then open the larger debate about a Department of Technology and elected technology leaders at the local, county, state and federal levels, including a Secretary of Technology.

    Two rules for all 100 days

    • No riders. Questions as large as federal preemption of state AI laws should not be decided inside a defense or budget bill. They need their own hearings and their own text.
    • Settle the hard disagreements early. The last Congress’s one bipartisan success stalled because the central dispute surfaced a few weeks before Election Day.

    The case against our case

    A fair agenda includes the strongest objections.

    • It is too much, too fast. Skeptics will say five items in 100 days is unrealistic, especially in a Senate that needs 60 votes for most bills. We would rather offer a full list and let members pick; the first two items are the most achievable.
    • Congress has limited reach over local contracts. A federal NDA ban cannot easily dictate how a city signs agreements except through federal funding, permits or land. Developers also argue that confidentiality protects competitive information, and Microsoft has said the agreements were meant to protect sensitive information. The bill’s trade-secret carve-out is where this fight will be decided.
    • Mandatory cost allocation could raise costs or slow building. Supporters of the optional approach worry that rigid federal standards could discourage investment at a moment when the country needs more capacity.
    • Revenue scenarios are speculative. The same New York report acknowledges it is hard to connect today’s hiring trends to AI with certainty. We agree, which is why we ask for a range of scenarios and not a single forecast.

    Start now

    None of this requires a party to give up its principles. It requires members to decide that the question of who is accountable for the technology buildout is theirs to answer. We will keep publishing the evidence and we will tell you plainly when we think a proposal falls short. Our proposal is at department.technology/.

  • A Briefing for the New Congress: What the Last Two Years Got Wrong, and What to Do Differently

    By the Founders, Department of Technology | San Diego, California | November 13, 2026

    To the newly elected: you are about to inherit the most consequential technology decisions in a generation, and the last Congress left you a map of what not to do.

    This is not a partisan scorecard. The record we describe below includes members of both parties acting in good faith and members of both parties falling short. Newly elected members of Congress are sworn in this January, and we think you are better served by an honest account of what happened than by a flattering one. We start with what worked.

    What the last Congress got right

    It is easy to say Congress did nothing on data centers. That is not quite true. In July, the House Energy and Commerce Committee passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 52 to 0, a bill from Republican Gabe Evans and Democrat Kathy Castor. In September, the full House passed it 417 to 3 under a procedure that required a two-thirds majority. The bill would require state utility regulators to consider standards that make large data center customers pay the full cost of the grid upgrades built to serve them. In a polarized era, that is a real accomplishment, and it shows what is possible when members start from a problem their constituents can feel: the electric bill.

    Then came the mistakes.

    Mistake 1: Trying to pass the big thing through the back door

    For two years, advocates of a national AI framework tried to move federal preemption of state AI laws by attaching it to must-pass bills. Those efforts, including the defense authorization bill and the 2025 budget reconciliation law, were unsuccessful. Senators rejected a broad preemption proposal 99 to 1. In March 2026, the White House sent Congress a national policy framework that again called for preempting burdensome state laws while carving out areas such as child safety and state zoning for AI infrastructure. By one account, Congress left for its August recess without moving a federal AI framework out of committee.

    The lesson is not that preemption is right or wrong. Reasonable people disagree, and we lay out both sides below. The lesson is that a question this large cannot be settled by rider. It needs its own hearings, its own text and its own public debate.

    Mistake 2: Letting the one agreement become a campaign prop

    The Ratepayer Protection Act did not stall because no one wanted it. It stalled because of how it arrived. On September 30, five weeks before Election Day, the Senate voted 57 to 43 on a procedural motion that needed 60 votes. Only four Democrats voted yes.

    The two sides told different stories, and each has a serious argument:

    • Republican supporters said the bill had passed the House almost unanimously, with Democratic votes and Democratic cosponsors, and accused Senate Democrats of refusing to take yes for an answer for political reasons.
    • Senate Democrats said the bill’s core protection is optional, since states need only consider standards, and offered their own GRID Savings Act to make large customers actually pay for grid upgrades. Senator Schumer called the Republican bill “optional” and toothless.

    We take no side on optional versus mandatory. We do note that Reuters reported Senate Republicans aimed to improve their midterm prospects with the vote, and that the bill arrived at the end of the session, after the Senate had not moved on data centers for months. A measure introduced in July and brought to a test vote in the last weeks before an election will be judged as a campaign move whatever its merits. The practical lesson for new members: if you want a data center bill to become law, negotiate the mandatory-versus-optional question in the spring, not the fall.

    Mistake 3: Solving one slice of a three-part problem

    Even if the Ratepayer Protection Act had passed, it would have addressed one of three risks we described in our earlier piece, “The Data Center Casino.” It deals with who pays for grid upgrades. It does not address how fast we can build power to compete with China, the financial exposure if the AI investment boom turns, or what happens to federal and state revenue if AI displaces high-paid white-collar work. Congress legislated the slice that polls well. No committee is responsible for the whole.

    Mistake 4: Leaving a vacuum for states and for secret local deals

    When Congress does not act, others do. In 2026, 29 states enacted AI legislation, and for the first time both Republican- and Democratic-led states passed laws adding requirements or oversight for data centers. That is encouraging, and it is also a patchwork. Meanwhile, at the local level, many deals are still negotiated under non-disclosure agreements. As we noted in our open letter, 25 of 31 Virginia local governments involved in data center development had signed NDAs. Residents learn about the largest infrastructure project in their county after the decision is made.

    Mistake 5: Nobody owns it

    This is the mistake underneath the others. AI, data centers, the power grid, student data, surveillance and the workforce are governed by a patchwork of committees and agencies. Each handles a slice, and no one is accountable to voters for how the slices fit together. We raised this directly. In February 2025 we submitted a proposal to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for a national AI action plan, and in July 2025 we published a response to the plan that followed. We have not had a substantive engagement with either. We mention it not as a complaint, since a good idea should not depend on one administration, but because it illustrates the structural problem: there was no office whose job it was to say yes or no.

    What new members can do in the first 100 days

    1. Hold hearings on the whole picture. Grid capacity, public cost, competitiveness and fiscal impact together, with the same witnesses in the same room.
    2. Settle optional versus mandatory early. Bring Republicans and Democrats who both voted for ratepayer protection into one room and write the version that can reach 60 votes.
    3. Keep big structural questions out of must-pass bills. Preemption, if it happens, should be debated on its own.
    4. Open the deals. Require public disclosure of data center agreements that involve public land, public utilities or public incentives.
    5. Create a single point of accountability. At minimum, a standing joint committee with jurisdiction over the whole question. Ideally, an elected technology leader at every level of government, including a Secretary of Technology at the federal level, whose job is to answer to voters for the combination.

    The case against our case

    A fair briefing includes the strongest objections.

    • Preemption advocates argue a patchwork of state laws slows innovation and that national competitiveness requires one national standard, and they note that the longer Congress waits, the harder preemption becomes as states pass more laws (Broadband Breakfast). Opponents respond that preemption without enforceable federal protections would leave residents with fewer remedies.
    • Optional standards may be the right design. Supporters of the Ratepayer Protection Act argue that utility regulation has long been a state responsibility and that a federal mandate would overreach. Critics respond that voluntary pledges have not been enough.
    • Congress already has committees for this. Some will say the problem is political will, not structure, and that a new office adds a layer. Our view is that structure shapes will: when every committee owns a slice, no one is blamed for the whole. But we welcome the argument.

    The first step

    The new Congress does not need to solve everything in January. It needs to stop treating the central question, who is accountable for the technology buildout, as someone else’s job. Start the conversation about a Department of Technology and elected technology leaders at every level. We will help, and we will be honest with you when we think you are wrong. Find our proposal at department.technology/.