(The Daily Caller)—A new Republican-led bill proposed in both the House and Senate could arm companies that own data centers.

The Critical Infrastructure Airspace Defense Act was proposed in the House by Republican Tennessee Rep. Matt Van Epps on Tuesday and could arm the owners of assets that the secretary of Homeland Security determines to be “critical infrastructure” with anti-drone weapons systems. The proposed legislation follows statements from key investors raising warnings about domestic terrorism targeting AI data centers, while critics point out that data centers may be doing more harm than good.

ADVERTISEMENT

“The foundational concern with legislation of this kind begins before any individual provision,” Christabel Randolph, an associate director at the Center for AI and Digital Policy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The bill proposes a structural shift in governance: the privatization of a sovereign enforcement power — the authority to disable or destroy aircraft operating in national airspace — and its transfer to corporate actors with profit motives, competitive interests, and minimal public accountability. That shift alone should warrant deep skepticism.”

Van Epps’ bill is a copy of the version introduced in the Senate by Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton. The bill would allow the private ownership of anti-drone technologies, including directed-energy systems, projectile-based systems (guns) and net-capture systems, among other weapons platforms.

“AI data centers could potentially qualify as covered critical infrastructure facilities under the bill if the Department of Homeland Security, after consulting with the Department of Energy, designates them as high-risk sites,” Cotton told the DCNF. “The authority is based on affirmative designation rather than a fixed list of sectors, and large AI data centers’ significant energy consumption and national economic or security importance could support such a designation. ”

“Multiple layered safeguards in the bill are designed to prevent abuse, overreach, or misuse by private companies or their contractors,” Cotton added. “Actions may only address a ‘credible threat’ to the facility.”

The legislation would counter this exact threat by granting the “authority to use counter-unmanned aircraft system technologies to private owners of critical infrastructure facilities, and for other purposes,” according to the Senate version of the bill.

“If we’re going to be building, let’s say, these one-gigawatt data centers, how do we make sure we’re not protecting those 50 billion, 75 billion dollar investments?” BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said during a speech at Global Conference 2026 on May 5.

BlackRock’s AI Consortium agreed to purchase Aligned Data Centers from Macquarie Asset Management in a deal worth $20 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported on Oct. 15, 2025. BlackRock did not respond to requests for comment.

The AI data center boom has fueled a surge of investment into once-obscure infrastructure companies, helping mint 16 new billionaires across technology firms, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 21, 2025.

“We have to relook at everything because of the role of drone warfare,” Fink said during the speech. “Right now we’re looking at it internationally, but you know, one of my concerns is could it be a domestic terrorism using a $3,000 drone?”

The Department of Homeland Security, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

“Securing our Nation’s energy infrastructure from physical and cyber threats is a top priority for the Department of Energy (DOE),” a DOE spokesperson told the DCNF. “[The] DOE welcomes congressional guidance and funding that would augment DOE’s ability to strengthen the security and resilience of the energy sector.”

Is AI Good For You?

Critics of this rhetoric, such as Tucker Carlson, have raised the concern that if you have to defend these investments from domestic threats, it could be a possibility that they are not beneficial to U.S. citizens.

“Larry Fink is concerned that ordinary American citizens, as he just said, will use $3,000 drones to destroy these billion-dollar investments. Why would he be worried about that?” Carlson said on The Tucker Carlson Show on May 13. “But Larry Fink knows, in fact, he’s admitting that people know this is bad for them. So bad that they might be willing to commit an act of terrorism, a felony for which they could be imprisoned for a long time.”

Only 33% of Americans support the rapid development of AI data centers, according to a poll from Reuters and Ipsos with a margin of error of two percentage points that surveyed 4,531 U.S. adults.

Water usage is one of the biggest concerns surrounding AI data centers. A large data center can use up to 5 million gallons of water per day, equivalent to a town of 10,000 to 50,000 people, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

Data centers consumed about 4.4% of total U.S. electricity in 2023 and are expected to consume 6.7% to 12% by 2028, the DOE reported on Dec. 20, 2024.

Virginia could see a unconstrained energy demands rise 180% by 2040 as the state rapidly develops new AI data centers, according to the Virginia Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC).

Another concern, though not mentioned as frequently as water or energy usage, is noise pollution. Data centers can emit constant low-frequency noise that affects residents’ well-being, according to JLARC.

The concerns have boiled over in localities across the country, with taxpayers ousting city council members over data center deals, or even banning them outright.

As AI becomes more pervasive in modern society, think tanks such as the AI Now Institute aim to remedy the “social consequences of AI and the industry behind it.”

AI Now created a toolkit “geared toward stopping, slowing, and restricting rampant data center development in the US at the local and state level,” to help communities as these data centers cause pollution, raise energy prices, deplete natural resources and pull tax dollars from local needs.

“Moreover, the largest AI data centers in the United States are owned by a handful of companies — Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta, and a small number of hyperscale operators,” Randolph told the DCNF. “The result is a federally subsidized security perimeter for the most powerful corporations in the technology sector, paid for by taxpayers.”

Van Epps defended the proposed bill through the lens of national security in his closing remarks as he introduced the bill in the House, according to a Tuesday press release.

“A single drone attack on a chemical facility, electrical substation, or water treatment plant could trigger widespread economic consequences, disrupt vital services, and endanger countless Americans,” Van Epps told the DCNF. “That’s why this bill allowing critical infrastructure sites to employ defensive counter-drone technology is so important.”

‘Directed-Energy Systems’

If enacted, this bill would give private citizens in the United States access to military-grade weapons systems.

“Some of these technologies include electronic jamming, spoofing, directed-energy systems, projectile-based systems, net-capture systems, and other drone-disabling technologies,” Van Epps told the DCNF. “It will ultimately be up to the Secretary of Homeland Security, in coordination with other departments, to determine the scope of this training and what technologies are used.”

The implementation of these weapons systems will require significant oversight from local and federal authorities, Van Epps told the DCNF. The Department of Homeland Security will be in charge of managing who has access to these counter-drone technologies and how they can be used, Van Epps said.

The Federal Aviation Administration will also be involved in the use of these systems in conjunction with state and local law enforcement, according to Van Epps.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on pending legislation,” a Pentagon official told the DCNF.

Allowing private individuals to possess such weapons could cause new legislative hurdles in the future, Randolph warned.

“Granting AI data center operators counter-UAS authority on the theory that physical destruction of servers is a national security threat creates a legal and regulatory foundation that could subsequently be used to justify far broader uses by the companies which currently operate with little to no regulatory oversight,” Randolph told the DCNF.

It’s also unclear if any of the weapons systems will be AI-powered.

“The key concern about all of these technologies is not necessarily their physical characteristics but the decision-making architecture,” Randolph told the DCNF. “Counter-UAS systems increasingly incorporate AI-enabled automated detection, classification, and automated response. A system that can identify and interdict a drone without human authorization and accountability represents a serious risk to democratic governance of national security technologies.”

“The current bill is shortsighted and misconceived at a structural level and should not proceed,” Randolph told the DCNF.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.