Reassert Congressional Authority over White House AI Executive Order Overreach

The Trump administration has made its desire to use executive authority to boost the AI industry and fast-track data centers across the country extremely clear. This includes a drive to preempt state and local authority1 and sidestep congressional authority in service of AI data centers.2 Congress can protect against such unilateral actions.

Moreover, the July 2025 executive order “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure” orders the secretary of commerce to launch an initiative providing financial support for qualifying data center projects.3 Congress, per its authority to control federal spending, can institute oversight over all federal investment in data center projects, including any loans, loan guarantees, grants, tax incentives, and offtake agreements suggested in the executive order.4

  1. Executive Order 14365 of December 11, 2025, Ensuring a National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence, 90 Fed. Reg. 58499 (2025), https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2025/12/16/2025-23092/ensuring-a-national-policy-framework-for-artificial-intelligence. ↩︎
  2. Executive Order 14318, Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure. ↩︎
  3. Ibid. ↩︎
  4. The Appropriations Clause, Art. I, § 9, Cl, 7, reads that “No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” Congress has the authority to require that a financial program referenced in Sec. 3 of the Executive Order, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” proceed into Congressional appropriations. In that process of appropriations, Congress may impose conditions, limitations, or prohibitions on the use of the funds. ↩︎