Federal Data Center Oversight Law Set to Expire Unreplaced

Federal oversight of government data centers is about to disappear

The Trump administration plans to let the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act (FDCEA) expire without replacement, according to sources who spoke with WIRED. Neither Congress nor the Office of Management and Budget has outlined plans to extend the law or establish alternative oversight mechanisms for federal data center operations.

The timing is notable. As federal agencies accelerate AI adoption and data center electricity consumption heads toward 9 percent of total U.S. usage by 2030, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, the expiring law removes key guardrails around energy efficiency, water use, and security reporting.

What the expiring law required

Passed in 2023, FDCEA continued a decade-long effort to bring order to federal data center operations. The law required agencies to employ energy specialists when designing data centers, consider water consumption in facility plans, and report on the sustainability of contractor-operated centers. It built on 2014 legislation that established consolidation targets and monitoring requirements after years of agencies independently building inefficient, sometimes poorly sited facilities.

A current GSA employee, speaking anonymously to WIRED, called the lack of succession planning unprecedented: "Never in the history of data center policies has a policy expired without another one having been painstakingly worked on for three years behind the scenes."

Why it matters

Removing federal data center oversight eliminates visibility into how the government—the nation's largest employer—builds and operates infrastructure for AI and digital services. Without FDCEA's requirements, individual agency chief information officers gain discretion over what they report and prioritize, but lose standardized frameworks for energy efficiency and security transparency. The administration has also discontinued the Federal IT Dashboard, making government contracts with private data center operators harder to track. As Matt Triner of Hunter Strategy noted to WIRED, "Visibility is a big part of security, and you're stripping away a lot of tools that were used to make sure that it happens."

The broader policy shift

The move aligns with President Trump's July 2025 executive order directing agencies to expedite data center development on federal land. That order revoked a Biden-era directive requiring clean energy development and sustainability plans for data centers built on government property.

Senator Jacky Rosen, who sponsored FDCEA, told WIRED her office is "looking at all options" to ensure data security but provided no specifics. Multiple data center bills introduced in Congress this year address environmental reviews and local moratoriums but do not replace FDCEA's federal facility requirements.

Clare Martorana, federal chief information officer under Biden, emphasized to WIRED the years of effort behind data center cleanup: "An enormous amount of this ecosystem was cleaned up, and the government saved billions of dollars."

The GSA employee characterized the policy lapse as intentional: "By letting this expire, OMB is going to enter into this new age of prioritizing rapid AI development over any sort of centralized control or rigorous standards."

These details were first reported by WIRED.