Tech watchdog urges Democrats to hit GOP over high data center costs

Tech watchdog urges Democrats to hit GOP over high data center costs

The Tech Oversight Project is laying out a closing message for Democrats on data centers as candidates head into the final stretch ahead of the midterm elections.

In a memo shared first with The Hill, the tech watchdog group outlined the costs to voters from the server warehouses powering the AI boom, arguing that Americans are paying more in household bills while major tech companies receive tax breaks.

“Across the country, Big Tech companies have claimed billions in federal and state subsidies to build their deeply unpopular data centers – and left taxpayers holding the bill,” Sacha Haworth , founder and executive director of the Tech Oversight Project, wrote in the memo released Monday.

Data centers have increasingly become a major issue in the midterms, as Americans have grown wary of the push to rapidly build more of these facilities across the country to support the AI boom.

The Tech Oversight Project underscored that Republicans are aware data centers have become a problem from some of their candidates , like Sen. Jon Husted (R-Ohio).

In August, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) argued data centers are “the anchor hanging around Husted’s neck,” warning that “politicians across the country will take notice” if data centers are blamed for costing him the election.

Democrats have increasingly viewed data centers as a means of knocking their GOP opponents over cost of living and corruption concerns.

“This message rightly points out the pay-to-play attitude the Republican Party has toward Big Tech,” Haworth noted in the memo. “But that doesn’t solve the cost-of-living crisis Americans are living through; voters demand solutions.”

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CFTC proposes new rules for crypto industry

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) unveiled new proposals Monday for regulating cryptocurrency markets, after an effort to pass digital asset legislation through Congress came up short last month.

The agency, one of two main financial regulators expected to oversee the industry, gave notice of its plans to move forward with rulemaking on both crypto asset transactions and markets .

The new rules would lay out how existing commodities law applies to transactions involving digital assets, in addition to establishing a new type of exchange that can register with the CFTC solely for the trading of such assets.

The new exchanges, called crypto asset markets, would specifically handle retail crypto transactions that are traded on a margined, leveraged or financed basis.

CFTC Chair Michael Selig underscored Monday in prepared remarks at Fordham Law School that this creates a “federal option for crypto asset exchanges” but does not require all to register with the agency.

For more on the latest crypto rulemaking, head to TheHill.com .

Crypto Corner is a daily feature focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.

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