The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it easier for the federal government to provide permits to create infrastructure for AI initiatives. It is known as the SPEED Act and is being supported by big IT firms including OpenAI, Micron and Microsoft.
The bill passed the House 218 – 213, despite a conservative mutiny that nearly killed the bill in a procedural vote. The Senate will take up the bill next, and it will undoubtedly be part of a broader conversation about altering the standards for permits.
SPEED Act backers argue the U.S. has to overcome China and other global rivals to be the top AI leader.
“The electricity we will need to power AI computing for civilian and military use is a national imperative,” said Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., the bill’s author and chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee.
The SPEED Act would overhaul the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act that mandates federal approvals for initiatives impacting the environment.
The SPEED Act would cut the present statute of limitations for NEPA litigation from six years to 150 days and set shorter timeframes for NEPA reviews.
Recent clearance delays for clean energy projects favored by Democrats have sparked bipartisan advocacy for permitting reform.
AI has become a huge industry, and power-hungry data centers have added to the electric grid’s burden, so pressure has built on Congress to act.
Rep. Jared Golden of Maine, the bill’s Democratic cosponsor, said the SPEED Act would allow the United States to be “nimble enough to build what we need, when we need it.”
But most Democrats opposed the SPEED Act and stressed that any permitting bill must reverse President Donald Trump’s efforts to strangle offshore wind and other renewable sources of electricity.
Democratic resistance hardened when GOP leadership slipped language into the SPEED Act to exempt Trump’s efforts to stop renewables from provisions that would limit the White House’s authority to arbitrarily pull permits it doesn’t like.
The amendment came as conservatives on the House floor who oppose renewable energy said they would withhold their votes in a procedural vote unless they received concessions.
“That provision enshrines a broken permitting status quo. And I look forward to working with my colleagues across the aisle in the Senate to build a bipartisan product that can become law.” Rep. Scott Peters, D-Calif., supports permitting reform but opposed the SPEED Act.
This month, the Trump administration unveiled a new effort called the “U.S. Tech Force” that will hire around 1,000 engineers and other professionals to work on artificial intelligence infrastructure and other technology initiatives across the federal government.
Participants will have to sign up for a two-year job program in which they will work with teams that report directly to agency officials in “collaboration with leading technology companies,” a government official website says.
The website lists these “private sector partners” as Amazon Web Services, Apple, Google, Dell Technologies, Microsoft, Nvidia, OpenAI, Oracle, Palantir, Salesforce and many more.
“The Trump administration is investing more in developing the infrastructure of AI in the United States as it competes with China for dominance in this fast-growing space,” the Tech Force said.
The move comes four days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to develop a national AI policy framework, which was opposed by industry executives, states are drafting their own legislation.
After their two terms, Tech Force participants can seek for full-time work with organizations who have agreed to hire program alumni. Employees of the private sector may likewise be nominated to serve terms in government.
“We’re trying to reshape the workforce so that we can make sure we’ve got the right talent on the right problems,” U.S. Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
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