Senate Blocks House-Passed Data Center Electricity Bill in 57-43 Vote

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A bipartisan House-passed proposal aimed at protecting electricity customers from data center costs fell three votes short in the Senate, where critics argued the measure merely asked states to consider safeguards rather than requiring large power users to pay for grid expansion.

By yourNEWS Media Newsroom

The Senate failed Wednesday to advance legislation intended to shield households and small businesses from electricity costs associated with large data centers, as critics argued the measure lacked an enforcement mechanism requiring technology companies to pay for the infrastructure their facilities demand.

The chamber voted 57-43 on H.R. 9340, the Ratepayer Protection Act, falling three votes short of the 60 needed to overcome the procedural hurdle and move the legislation forward. Official Senate records list the Sept. 30 vote as rejected.

Four Democrats — Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire — joined Republicans in voting to advance the bill.

The legislation had passed the House overwhelmingly two weeks earlier in a 417-3 vote, with Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Delia Ramirez of Illinois and Summer Lee of Pennsylvania casting the only opposing votes.

Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, introduced the Senate version of the Ratepayer Protection Act in July as concerns intensified over the effect that rapidly expanding data center construction could have on electricity rates.

The proposal would direct states and public utility commissions to consider standards intended to make data centers and other exceptionally large electricity consumers pay for generation, transmission lines, substations and other infrastructure needed to connect their operations to the grid.

Husted’s office describes the legislation as a way to prevent families and businesses from subsidizing the infrastructure required by large-load customers. But the measure stops short of requiring states to adopt the proposed standards. States would have to consider them, but could ultimately decline to implement them.

That distinction became central to Democratic opposition.

Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., argued that Congress should impose a direct requirement on large electricity users rather than instructing states to consider whether they should bear the costs they create.

Heinrich has introduced the Guarding Ratepayers from Increased Demand-costs Savings Act, known as the GRID Savings Act of 2026, which would require data centers and other large-load electricity customers to pay for specified grid upgrades and connection facilities associated with their projects.

“I don’t think it’s enough to just take their word for it. It’s not enough for us to tell states to consider making data centers pay for grid updates,” Heinrich said. “Rather than making pledges or suggestions to states, Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth. That’s why today I introduced the GRID Savings Act to require, not a voluntary agreement, to require large load customers like data centers to pay for the facilities needed to connect them to the grid. Not to consider it, not to make pledges, [but] to actually do it.”

The disagreement had already blocked an earlier attempt to move Husted’s bill.

On Sept. 17, Husted sought unanimous consent to fast-track passage of the Ratepayer Protection Act, but Heinrich objected. Under Senate procedure, a single senator can prevent a bill from passing by unanimous consent.

Husted said at the time that large data centers should bear the financial responsibility for the infrastructure required to serve them.

“When a very large electricity customer, such as the data center, connects to the grid, it can require investments in new generation transmission lines, substations and local distribution systems,” Husted said during the earlier floor effort, according to his Senate office.

The legislation recommends that state regulators consider requiring customers with electrical demand of 100 megawatts or more to cover the incremental costs of infrastructure constructed on their behalf and provide financial assurances protecting other ratepayers if a project closes, scales back operations or fails to use the amount of power originally anticipated.

The scale of modern data centers has made those questions increasingly significant for utilities and regulators.

A single large data center can consume approximately 100 megawatts of electricity, enough to equal the power demand of roughly 100,000 homes, according to Consumer Reports.

Artificial intelligence has accelerated that demand because AI computing facilities can require substantially more electricity than traditional data centers.

Utilities in areas experiencing rapid construction must determine how to finance new power plants, transmission lines, substations and distribution infrastructure needed to serve those facilities.

The central policy dispute is who should bear those costs.

Supporters of stronger ratepayer protections argue that the companies creating the additional demand should finance infrastructure built specifically to serve them rather than spreading costs across all customers through higher electricity rates.

National residential electricity prices have increased approximately 27% since 2019, outpacing broader consumer inflation over that period, according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.

Electricity prices are affected by numerous factors, including fuel costs, weather, generation capacity, transmission investment, state regulation and regional market conditions, so increases cannot be attributed solely to data centers.

However, states with substantial concentrations of data centers have experienced particularly large increases in some recent periods.

Residential electricity prices over one year rose approximately 13% in Virginia, 16% in Illinois and 12% in Ohio, compared with a roughly 6% national increase, according to CNBC.

The rapid pace of construction has intensified the debate.

Data center construction spending increased 57% between July 2025 and July 2026 as artificial intelligence companies, cloud providers and other technology businesses expanded computing capacity, according to a report on the industry’s growth.

That expansion is also expected to increase demand for natural gas and other forms of power generation.

Natural gas consumption associated with electricity generation for U.S. data centers has been projected to rise by as much as 15 billion cubic feet per day through 2035, potentially making the sector’s gas demand larger than the total consumption of most individual countries.

The issue has become increasingly prominent politically as communities consider proposals for massive new data center campuses while residents raise concerns about electricity bills, water consumption, land use, noise and construction of new transmission infrastructure.

Husted’s legislation seeks to address the electricity-cost component by establishing federal principles for state regulators while leaving final rate-setting authority largely with states.

His office said the Ratepayer Protection Act would build upon commitments made earlier this year by major technology companies to pay for the electricity infrastructure their projects require.

In March, President Donald Trump hosted technology executives at the White House as companies signed a Ratepayer Protection Pledge committing to cover the full costs of new generation and infrastructure associated with their data centers rather than shifting those expenses to existing customers.

Husted has argued that his bill would translate elements of that voluntary commitment into federal policy.

Critics such as Heinrich contend the measure does not go far enough because its operative requirement is that regulators consider the federal standards, not necessarily adopt them.

The competing GRID Savings Act would take a more prescriptive approach by imposing requirements on large-load customers to pay costs associated with facilities necessary to connect them to the electrical system.

Wednesday’s Senate vote leaves the House-passed Ratepayer Protection Act stalled despite its overwhelming bipartisan support in the lower chamber.

It also highlights an unusual divide in which lawmakers from both parties broadly agree that ordinary electricity customers should not subsidize infrastructure built for massive data centers, but disagree over whether Washington should require a specific cost-allocation system or leave the ultimate decision to states and utility regulators.

For now, neither approach has cleared Congress.

The House-backed measure secured 57 Senate votes but failed to reach the chamber’s 60-vote threshold, while Heinrich’s mandatory-payment proposal remains pending.

As construction of power-intensive artificial intelligence facilities continues expanding across the country, the question Congress has yet to resolve is not whether data centers create major new demands on the electrical grid, but how much authority the federal government should use to ensure those costs are borne by the companies creating them rather than other ratepayers.