vars:
  amazon_linux_ami: "ami-fb8e9292"
  user_data_file: "base-ami-userdata.sh"
tasks:
- name: user_data_contents
  shell: cat {{ user_data_file }}
  register: user_data_action
- name: launch ec2-instance
  local_action:
...
  user_data: "{{ user_data_action.stdout }}"

user_data: "{{ lookup('file', user_data_file) }}"

- hosts: all
  vars:
     contents: "{{ lookup('file', '/etc/foo.txt') }}"
  tasks:
     - debug: msg="the value of foo.txt is {{ contents }}"

vars:
  amazon_linux_ami: "ami-fb8e9292"
  user_data_file: "base-ami-userdata.sh"
tasks:
- name: Load data
  slurp:
    src: "{{ user_data_file }}"
  register: slurped_user_data
- name: Decode data and store as fact # You can skip this if you want to use the right hand side directly...
  set_fact:
    user_data: "{{ slurped_user_data.content | b64decode }}"