Last week, the House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it easier to get federal permits to build things for AI projects.
Big tech companies like OpenAI, Micron, and Microsoft support the SPEED Act.
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The House passed the bill by a vote of 221 to 196, even though conservatives tried to kill it in a procedural vote. The Senate will now look at the bill, but it may be part of a bigger conversation about changing the rules for permits.
People who support the SPEED Act say that the U.S. needs to stay ahead of China and other countries in the competition to lead in AI.
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Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., the bill’s sponsor and chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, said, “The electricity we will need to power AI computing for civilian and military use is a national imperative.”
The SPEED Act would change the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, which says that the federal government must review projects that would have an impact on the environment.
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It would cut the time limit for NEPA lawsuits from six years to 150 days and make the deadlines for NEPA reviews stricter.
Recent delays in getting permits for clean energy projects backed by Democrats have led to bipartisan support for changing the permitting process.
There is more pressure on Congress to act now that AI is a big business and data centers that want more power are putting more stress on the electric grid.
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, a Democratic co-sponsor of the bill, said that the SPEED Act would make the United States “nimble enough to build what we need, when we need it.”
Most Democrats, on the other hand, were against the SPEED Act and said that any permitting bill should undo President Donald Trump’s efforts to stop offshore wind and other renewable energy sources.
The GOP leadership added language to the SPEED Act that would protect Trump’s efforts to stop renewable energy sources from getting permits. The amendment only made Democrats more determined to fight back.
After a standoff on the House floor during a procedural vote where conservatives who were against renewable energy wanted concessions in exchange for their votes, the amendment was added.
“That part makes the broken permitting system official. I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle in the Senate to make a bipartisan product that can become law,” said Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., who supports permitting reform but opposed the SPEED Act.
This month, the Trump administration announced the “U.S. Tech Force,” a new program that will hire about 1,000 engineers and other experts to work on technology projects across the federal government, including building infrastructure for artificial intelligence.
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An official government website says that people who want to participate will have to sign up for a two-year job program where they will work with teams that report directly to agency leaders “in collaboration with leading technology companies.”
The website says that these “private sector partners” include Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce, and many others.
The Tech Force says that the Trump administration is working harder to build up America’s AI infrastructure as it competes with China for dominance in this rapidly growing field.
After President Donald Trump signed an executive order to make a national AI policy framework that industry leaders didn’t like, states started making their own rules.
After completing their two terms, Tech Force members can apply for full-time jobs with companies that have agreed to hire program graduates.
The private partners can also choose employees to work for the government for a time.
This article may contain commentary which reflects the author’s opinion.
