Fetterman Says Democratic AI Moratorium Push Is ‘Lunacy,’ ‘China-First’

Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) on Wednesday called Democratic opposition to artificial intelligence and data center construction “lunacy” and “a China-first kind of a policy in our nation,” in the latest in a series of public breaks with the progressive wing of his party.

“I’ll be the one Democrat to just stand up and say that’s ridiculous,” Fetterman said in a Fox News interview. “You know, we have to be the people that build the chassis of AI.”

Fetterman was responding to Democratic calls for a federal moratorium on AI data center construction. The most prominent such proposal—the Artificial Intelligence Data Center Moratorium Act introduced on March 25 by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)—would pause new AI data center construction in the United States until federal safeguards are in place to protect workers, consumers, and the environment. The bill would also ban U.S. exports of AI computing infrastructure to countries without comparable safeguards.

Fetterman’s perspective echoes a broader argument made by the Trump administration and pro-AI lawmakers in both parties that slowing U.S. AI development would allow China to overtake the United States in a global technology race. 

After Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez unveiled their bill, Fetterman wrote on X in late February: “We can put appropriate guardrails in place without handing the win on AI to China. A moratorium is China First.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has made a similar argument, calling a data center moratorium a “surrender flag” to China. 

President Donald Trump was in Beijing this week for a two-day summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, with artificial intelligence among the issues on the agenda.

Sanders defended the moratorium at the bill’s March unveiling. “In a sane world, what happens is the leadership of the United States sits down with the leadership in China and leadership around the world to work together so that we don’t go over the edge and create a technology which could perhaps destroy humanity,” he said. 

Ocasio-Cortez said artificial intelligence companies have driven up electricity bills in communities near data centers and accused them of partnering with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to surveil Americans. “Congress has a moral obligation to stand with the American people and stop the expansion of these data centers until we have a framework to adequately address the existential harm AI poses to our society,” she said in a statement announcing the legislation. 

Fetterman’s comments come a week after the Washington Post published his op-ed declining to switch parties.

“[I’d] be a terrible Republican who still votes overwhelmingly with Democrats,” he wrote. 

Sanders’s and Ocasio-Cortez’s offices were contacted for comment but did not respond before publication. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.