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Tech Policy and Regulation Weekly Roundup

By  |  January 23, 2026

As the calendar turned to 2026, hundreds of new laws took effect around the U.S., many of them tech related, while the federal government continued to struggle to get its tech-reg act together. Here are some key developments:

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    The week of January 19-23 was disclosure week:

    • OpenAI and Anthropic filed their first AI model training data disclosures as required under California’s Training Data Transparency Act, which took effect January 1. Long on summarizing, short on details ( Goodwin Law).
    • Annual federal lobbying expenditures disclosures were released and Meta led that technology pack, laying out $26.29 million in 2025. Amazon was next at $17.78 millions, followed by Google ($13.10m), Microsoft ($9.36m), and Oracle ($9.22m). Their target? AI policy (Bloomberg).

    Crypto market-structure bill struggles to get over the finish line:

    • The Senate Banking Committee missed Chairman Tim Scott’s (R-SC) target date for marking up (i.e. voting on) the legislation this week and has now officially postponed work on the measure while it turns its attention to housing legislation (Bloomberg)
    • Sen. John Boozman (R-AR), the chairman of the Agriculture Committee, which shares jurisdiction on the bill, released a revised version of the bill and set next Tuesday (1/27) to bring it to a vote, despite the banking panel’s delay. But the measure has lost the bipartisan support it once enjoyed on Boozman’s committee leaving its future uncertain (Decrypt).

    Data broker crack down:

    • California levied its first fine against a pair of data brokers for failing to register with the state’s Privacy Protection Agency as now required under the Delete Act, which became effective January 1, dinging Rickenbacher Data and S&P Global $42,000 and $62,000, respectively (Clark Hill).

    Data center throw down:

    • Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) announced what she described as “the largest economic project in Michigan history,” cinching a deal with DTE Energy to proceed with a 1.4-gigawatt AI data center being developed by OpenAI and Oracle. Not everyone in the state was quite as enthusiastic, however. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, who is now running to replace Whitmer in the governor’s mansion, channeled local opposition to the power- and water-gobbling server farm while state legislators introduced bills to increase transparency around data-center resource use (MITech News).
    • Local opposition to data-center constructure continues to grow around the country. According to a tally released last week by Heatmap Pro, 25 data-center projects were scrapped in the planning stages last year in the face of local pushback, more than 4X the number of projects shelved in 2024 (Heatmap Pro).

    Cybersecurity insecurity

    • Appropriators in both the House and Senate added provisions to legislation funding the Department of Home Security this week barring the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) from reducing staffing levels “in such a way that it lacks sufficient staff to effectively carry out its statutory missions,” in the face of Trump administration efforts to downsize the agency (NextGov/FCW).
    • The House Homeland Security Committee challenged CISA acting director Madhu Gottumukkala at a hearing Wednesday over the staffing cuts, a failed polygraph, and attempts to reassign the agency’s chief information office (NextGov/FCW).