Edgewater leaders are weighing a proposal that would allow voters to decide whether to permanently ban data centers within city limits, joining other Florida communities pushing back on the rapidly expanding industry.

Seminole County doesn’t have any large-scale AI data centers — and there are no concrete plans to build one. But county commissioners aren’t waiting for that to change before asking a critical question: Should they have rules in place before one arrives? This week, commissioners began discussing whether a moratorium on data centers is needed as they plan for the county’s future.

Legislation putting new restrictions on large-scale data centers, a major plank of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ push to put guardrails on artificial intelligence, cleared its first House committee on Tuesday.

Statisticians and demographers are sounding the alarm about threats to official data gathering in the U.S. They warn that funding for the federal statistical agencies is inadequate and measures in a House appropriations bill could undermine what Americans know about themselves.