WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Trump is encouraging communities to embrace data centers — while Democrats are starting to accuse Republicans of green-lighting data center developers through a business growth initiative in the GOP’s landmark tax law in 2025.
President Donald Trump suggested Monday on Truth Social that communities that reject data centers could end up being “backwards and poor.”
“The president happens to be right in this,” said Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., about the president’s approach to A.I. and data centers. “A.I. is going to transform our world. It can be either us, be the leaders, or it can be the Chinese. And we could live under those rules and they’re going to build unlimited data centers.”
The global race to lead in A.I. development and the debate over data centers needed to power the tech has engulfed communities across the country and lawmakers on Capitol Hill — just two months before the midterms.
Democrats are taking a new line of aim at Republicans over a tax provision in last year’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act to support “Opportunity Zones” — an initiative that aims to boost business investment and growth in underdeveloped areas.
“The Republicans, it should come as no surprise, are pro data center without any restraints. We know this because in their ‘one big, ugly bill,’ House Republicans voted to preempt state and local authorities from regulating data centers at all,” said House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY.
Critics of that argument say Opportunity Zones were not designed to support one specific industry.
Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., believes data centers could bring “real positives” and should be embraced — but with guardrails.
“If we sit back and allow these corporations and these private equity investors to dictate without being at the table, that’s a bad situation,” Thompson said.
The Agriculture Committee chairman’s district, (PA-15), makes up roughly one-third of Pennsylvania’s land mass. The district included over 1.3 million acres of farmland in the most recent USDA Ag Census.
“Let’s put them some places that are out of sight. Never put them on prime farmland,” said Thompson about data centers.
Thompson recently introduced the Not in My Barnyard Act, a bill, he says, would protect agricultural land from federal eminent domain proceedings, when a feasible alternative exists.
The government has historically initiated eminent domain to claim private land for highways, railways and even for commercial development, as long as it benefits the public.
“There are lots of situations where that occurs each and every day,” said Thompson.
With data centers — and the infrastructure needed to power them — now falling into the debate over eminent domain, Thompson says his new bill, “Could be a real shield of protection for our number one industry, which is agriculture, an industry that everybody relies on.”
