Smart Data Center Policy Act

The Smart Data Center Policy Act requires the Department of Commerce to conduct a study analyzing the effects of building data centers in or near specified critical infrastructure sites, military bases, and industrial areas. The Secretary of Commerce must submit a report detailing the study's findings to relevant congressional committees within 180 days of the bill becoming law.

* **Federal agencies and Congress:** The Secretary of Commerce is required to perform the study and report the findings to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. * **Industries and local communities:** Operators of data centers, utilities (power and water), and managers of "covered locations," which include domestic military bases, rail hubs, airports, air cargo facilities, air traffic control facilities, and industrial zones.

**Requirements:** The Secretary of Commerce **must**: * Conduct a comprehensive study on placing data centers in or near defined "covered locations." * Assess the estimated costs of constructing new data centers in these areas. * Evaluate how these data centers would affect local power grids, water infrastructure, and the surrounding environment. * Identify specific covered locations that currently have adequate physical land, water systems, and power capacity to support data center development. * Identify potential federal incentives that could encourage companies to build data centers in or near these locations. * Submit a report with the findings to Congress within 180 days of enactment. **Permissions and Authorizations:** * The bill authorizes and directs the Department of Commerce to study potential federal incentives, but it does not directly create or distribute those incentives.

The provided text does not mention any specific funding amounts, appropriations, taxes, fees, or direct financial benefits to carry out the study or to build data centers.

* **Study only:** The bill only mandates a study and a report. It does not alter local zoning rules, mandate the construction of data centers, or change environmental regulations. * **Geographic focus:** The study is limited specifically to "covered locations," defined strictly as U.S. military installations, rail hubs, commercial or cargo airports, air traffic control facilities, and legally zoned industrial areas.

This bill orders the Department of Commerce to produce a report within 180 days investigating whether military bases, transport hubs, and industrial parks have the power, water, and space needed to support new data centers, along with potential incentives to encourage building them there.