The US Government Is Letting a Key Data Center Regulation Expire
The US Government Is Letting a Key Data Center Regulation Expire
美国政府正任由一项关键的数据中心法规失效
The US government is quietly planning to allow a rule outlining the standards for federal data center usage and operations, known as the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act (FDCEA), to expire, according to sources who spoke to WIRED. Neither Congress nor the Trump administration appears to be making significant moves to protect or extend the rule, or put alternate plans in place.
据《连线》（WIRED）采访的消息人士透露，美国政府正悄悄计划让一项规定联邦数据中心使用和运营标准的法规——即《联邦数据中心增强法案》（FDCEA）——到期失效。目前，国会和特朗普政府似乎都没有采取任何重大举措来保护或延长该法规，也没有制定任何替代方案。
Data centers have become a hot-button issue in recent months, as the tech industry goes all in on artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to power it. According to a Gallup poll from May, more than 70 percent of Americans oppose the construction of data centers, the energy- and water-intensive buildings that power the AI boom, in their communities. From Utah to Georgia, residents across the political spectrum have united to voice their resistance to the data center build-out.
近几个月来，随着科技行业全力投入人工智能及其所需的基础设施建设，数据中心已成为一个备受争议的热点问题。根据盖洛普（Gallup）5月份的一项民意调查，超过70%的美国人反对在他们的社区建设数据中心——这些支撑人工智能繁荣、同时又极其耗能耗水的建筑。从犹他州到佐治亚州，不同政治立场的居民纷纷联合起来，表达对数据中心扩张的抵制。
Despite the public backlash, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the government agency that sets guidance for how agencies implement policies in line with the president’s agenda, is not providing any plans for how federal agencies should manage the sunset or continue to implement reporting beyond the timeline of the law. This, current and former workers at OMB and the General Services Administration (GSA) say, signals that the Trump administration is set to take an even more hands-off approach to data center oversight and regulation.
尽管面临公众的强烈反对，管理和预算办公室（OMB）——即负责制定各机构如何执行符合总统议程政策的政府部门——并未提供任何计划，说明联邦机构应如何应对该法规的失效，或在法律期限之后如何继续执行报告要求。OMB和总务管理局（GSA）的现任及前任工作人员表示，这表明特朗普政府准备在数据中心的监管方面采取更加“放手”的态度。
A replacement for the requirements laid out in FDCEA would, in other administrations, have been in the works for months ahead of its expiration. An employee with the GSA, the agency that oversees the government’s IT services and helps to implement the FDCEA, says that the lack of any sort of plan is highly uncommon. The employee spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
在其他政府执政期间，针对FDCEA所规定要求的替代方案，通常会在法规到期前数月就开始筹备。GSA（负责监督政府IT服务并协助实施FDCEA的机构）的一名员工表示，没有任何计划的情况非常罕见。出于对报复的担忧，该员工在匿名条件下接受了《连线》的采访。
“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,” says the GSA employee. “The technology has changed so much it’s not about getting everything right, it’s about doing the best they can and updating to a new policy. They claim they’re going to make sure private companies pay their fare share, but they haven’t explained how they’ll do that.”
“在数据中心政策史上，从未出现过一项政策在没有经过三年幕后精心筹备的情况下就直接失效，”该GSA员工说道。“技术已经发生了巨大变化，重点不在于事事完美，而在于尽其所能并更新到新政策。他们声称会确保私营公司承担应有的份额，但他们并没有解释将如何做到这一点。”
As the federal government continues to push agencies to adopt AI tools, demand for data centers and other technical infrastructure is only set to grow. The Electric Power Research Institute, a nonpartisan research organization, estimates that by 2030, data centers could be consuming at least 9 percent of electricity in the US.
随着联邦政府继续推动各机构采用人工智能工具，对数据中心和其他技术基础设施的需求只会不断增长。无党派研究机构电力研究所（Electric Power Research Institute）估计，到2030年，数据中心的用电量可能占到美国总用电量的至少9%。
WIRED reached out to the offices of three senators who originally sponsored the FDCEA about what, if any, plans there are to replace or renew the law.
《连线》联系了最初发起FDCEA的三位参议员办公室，询问是否有任何计划来替代或更新该法律。
There has been a burst of data-center-related legislation introduced in Congress this year, from bills that mandate environmental reviews of data centers to bills designed to protect local moratoriums. However, it appears that none of these bills are designed to address the requirements in FDCEA, nor do they specifically address federally run or leased data centers.
今年国会提出了大量与数据中心相关的立法，从强制要求对数据中心进行环境审查的法案，到旨在保护地方暂停令的法案，不一而足。然而，这些法案似乎都没有旨在解决FDCEA中的要求，也没有专门针对联邦运营或租赁的数据中心。
“Data centers across the country house critical and sensitive information, and we need to ensure they are protected from increased cyber threats and natural disasters,” Senator Jacky Rosen, who sponsored FDCEA when it was passed in 2023, told WIRED in an emailed statement. “My team and I are aware that the Federal Data Center Enhancement Act is set to sunset this fall and are looking at all options to ensure Americans’ personal information housed in data centers continue to be secure.” Rosen’s office, however, would not elaborate on what those plans are.
“全国各地的数据中心存储着关键且敏感的信息，我们需要确保它们免受日益增加的网络威胁和自然灾害的影响，”2023年FDCEA通过时发起该法案的参议员杰基·罗森（Jacky Rosen）在给《连线》的电子邮件声明中表示。“我和我的团队意识到《联邦数据中心增强法案》将于今年秋季失效，我们正在研究所有方案，以确保存储在数据中心里的美国人个人信息持续安全。”然而，罗森的办公室拒绝详细说明这些计划的具体内容。
A search of reginfo.gov, the OMB website that contains reports on the president’s Unified Agenda, also turns up nothing for the FDCEA.
搜索包含总统统一议程报告的OMB网站reginfo.gov，也未发现任何关于FDCEA的内容。
The White House did not respond to requests for comment. A GSA spokesperson referred WIRED to OMB, a spokesperson for which said it will fulfill all statutory requirements.
白宫未回应置评请求。GSA发言人将《连线》转介至OMB，OMB发言人表示将履行所有法定要求。
Before 2010, there was limited federal oversight of how agencies were building and operating data centers, which were used well before the widespread use of AI. As more and more federal work went digital, agencies were independently constructing data centers to suit their needs. Many of these data centers were built without thought to energy efficiency or budgetary targets. Despite containing valuable data, some were sited in unsecure locations: underground in a flood zone, one former OMB worker tells WIRED, for instance.
2010年之前，联邦政府对各机构如何建设和运营数据中心的监管非常有限，而这些数据中心在人工智能广泛应用之前就已经存在了。随着越来越多的联邦工作实现数字化，各机构为了满足自身需求而独立建设数据中心。许多数据中心在建设时并未考虑能源效率或预算目标。一位前OMB工作人员告诉《连线》，尽管这些中心存储着宝贵的数据，但有些选址并不安全，例如位于洪水区的地下。
During then president Barack Obama’s first term, the administration began a multiyear effort to monitor and clean up agency data centers, including efforts to retire certain data centers and move their information to cloud-based services. A landmark piece of legislation passed in 2014 to reform information technology across the government included an initiative to consolidate and more closely monitor data centers. Federal agencies were given targets to meet that would help save money, secure data, and monitor energy usage. The FDCEA, passed in 2023, is a continuation of many of those efforts.
在时任总统巴拉克·奥巴马的第一任期内，政府开始了一项为期多年的工作，旨在监控和清理各机构的数据中心，包括淘汰某些数据中心并将信息迁移到云服务。2014年通过的一项旨在改革政府信息技术的里程碑式立法，其中包括一项整合并更密切监控数据中心的倡议。联邦机构被设定了目标，以帮助节省资金、保护数据并监控能源使用。2023年通过的FDCEA正是这些努力的延续。
“An extraordinary effort has been put into this over many years,” Clare Martorana, the federal chief information officer in the Biden administration, tells WIRED. “An enormous amount of this ecosystem was cleaned up, and the government saved billions of dollars.”
“多年来，我们在这方面投入了非凡的努力，”拜登政府的联邦首席信息官克莱尔·马托拉纳（Clare Martorana）告诉《连线》。“这个生态系统中的很大一部分得到了清理，政府也因此节省了数十亿美元。”
Current and former federal workers who spoke to WIRED say that regulations like FDCEA and its predecessors were constructed for a different world: one which focused on resiliency, sustainability, cost savings. The coming age of AI, they say, dictates a need for a different strategy around the federal government’s involvement in data center construction. The federal government is the largest employer in the country, and regulations around how and why data centers are built to house federal data are even more crucial to the national data center build-out—especially when it comes to water and…
接受《连线》采访的现任和前任联邦工作人员表示，像FDCEA及其前身这样的法规是为另一个时代构建的：一个专注于弹性、可持续性和成本节约的时代。他们认为，即将到来的人工智能时代要求联邦政府在参与数据中心建设方面采取不同的策略。联邦政府是全国最大的雇主，关于如何以及为何建设数据中心来存储联邦数据的法规，对于国家数据中心的整体建设至关重要——尤其是在涉及水资源和……（原文此处中断）