A provision that would bar the Defense Department from leasing its land to private companies to build data centers that contain components manufactured by U.S. adversaries is making its way through Congress. If enacted, the measure could complicate the department’s future modernization efforts. 

Rep. Cory Mills (R-Fla.) got the provision into the House Armed Services Committee’s version of the fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill, which passed the chamber this week. The amendment would prohibit companies from “installing or operating data facility equipment” that contains certain printed circuit boards, advanced semiconductors, chipsets and other components that the Defense Department considers a national security risk.  

“Honored to pass this amendment to protect our military installations from Chinese components being used in data centers on our installations,” Mills said last month. “This bill protects national security, promotes American businesses, and builds industry capability.”

The Army, however, told Federal News Network that the amendment would create a “federal land penalty” by imposing requirements on companies that build facilities on military installations that would not apply to similar projects built elsewhere. 

The service has already selected Carlyle Group Inc., one of the world’s largest private equity firms, to build a massive data center at Fort Bliss in Texas and CyrusOne, a company jointly owned by KKR and BlackRock, to develop a similar project at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah. The project at Fort Bliss is expected to reach its initial operating capability in fiscal 2027.  

The Army said Mills’ measure would create an “unworkable standard,” which would “drive world-class commercial partners — and over $1.3 billion in private capital — away from Army land.”  

But as the Pentagon accelerates its plans to host commercial data centers on its land — the Air Force, for instance, is also opening up its unused land across five military bases to private companies to build AI data centers — lawmakers are increasingly focused on the broader implications of these projects.

House appropriators have acknowledged that the military’s broader push to host commercial data centers on its land places “significant strain on energy and water resources” and that “communities have resisted such projects.” The committee directed the defense secretary to assess how the proposed data center projects could impact nearby communities “before the initiation of physical on-site construction of a data center.”

Specifically, the lawmakers want the Pentagon to examine the projects’ energy and grid demands, water and environmental impacts, impacts to physical security and mission assurance as well as cumulative risk and community impacts.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) introduced a similar measure during the House Armed Services Committee’s markup earlier this summer, but the committee voted it down. Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.), who opposed Garamendi’s provision, argued that allowing data centers on military installations would help preserve farmland.

“I believe that [the amendment] is going to stand in the way of us maintaining AI dominance over China and it is going to prohibit us from being able to use federal reserves, which means that these data centers are going to go on black dirt and remove tillable soil from our farm economy, which we just don’t need right now,” Van Orden said.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, opposed the amendment, arguing it would “impede the Army’s ongoing negotiations.” 

“The nation with the best data infrastructure will possess a decisive advantage in the next warfare. The U.S. cannot afford to lose this position,” Rogers said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) introduced a standalone bill this week that would bar the construction of AI data centers on federal land altogether. 

“Everywhere I go in our district, our residents tell me loud and clear, data centers are not welcome in our communities,” Tlaib said in a statement. “Our residents are choking on smog and already paying too much for their utility bills, yet the Trump administration wants to place heavier cost burdens on the shoulders of hardworking Americans.”

“The No AI Data Centers on Federal Lands Act establishes a critical guardrail to protect our public lands and ensures that the rush to build AI infrastructure does not come at the expense of our health, environment, or democratic voice,” Mar Zepeda Salazar, Climate Justice Alliance legislative director, added.

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