The bill, one of Congress’s first efforts to rein in the unpopular facilities, was approved with overwhelming bipartisan support but is unlikely to lower prices immediately.
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The House passed a bill Wednesday meant to protect consumers from higher electricity rates caused by data centers in one of its final votes before the midterms, capping a week on Capitol Hill dominated by debate about AI.
The Ratepayer Protection Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support 417-3, with three Democrats voting against it: Reps. Summer Lee (Pennsylvania), Delia Ramirez (Illinois) and Rashida Tlaib (Michigan). Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-South Dakota) has signaled the Senate could take up the bill.
But even if the legislation passes the Senate, it’s unlikely to immediately lower energy costs: It directs states to consider making firms that operate new data centers pay a federally set rate for high volume electricity usage. The bill would not come into full force for two years.
The decision by GOP leadership to back the legislation reflects the pressure lawmakers are feeling to tackle high costs and limit data center development, as well as broader skepticism about AI. Recent warnings from tech leaders who are now pushing to slow down AI development have renewed energy on Capitol Hill to rein in the technology, even as Republicans remain largely opposed to regulating it.
Data centers have been a top priority for President Donald Trump in his second term. He signed an executive order last year expediting federal permitting, facilitating construction on federal land and making certain projects eligible for financial incentives. He has defended data centers even as others in his party have backed away. And in social media posts this week, he repeatedly dismissed concerns about AI as a hoax.
The expansion of data centers has been broadly unpopular; a Gallup survey conducted earlier this year found 7 in 10 Americans do not want the centers in their communities, in part because they often lead to increased electricity prices due to the amount of power needed to run them. Data centers have also become an issue in a number of midterm races.
Facing all of this public pressure, the House spent one of its final votes before lawmakers depart for a scheduled seven-week recess ahead of Election Day on the issue. The vote will help vulnerable representatives argue that they have taken some action on data centers as they hit the campaign trail. The bill passed under a procedure that fast-tracks noncontroversial legislation and requires a two-thirds majority vote.
The lawmakers who introduced the bill — Reps. Gabe Evans (R-Colorado) and Kathy Castor (D-Florida) — as well as eight of the co-sponsors are in races rated as toss-ups by the Cook Political Report.
Rep. Tom Barrett (R-Michigan) is one of the vulnerable House members who signed on to the legislation. “I’ve heard a lot from my constituents about data centers in particular,” he said, adding that he has introduced other bills on the topic.
“We should go as far as we can to make sure that nobody’s energy rates are being increased by any data center project,” Barrett said. But, he added, he believes that decisions about data centers should be left to local communities.
The legislation builds on a recent effort from the White House, the voluntary Ratepayer Protection Pledge, which encourages large tech and AI companies to protect Americans from higher energy costs through measures such as building their own power plants and paying for any needed local infrastructure upgrades.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who supported the bill, remains wary of efforts to regulate the AI industry. On Tuesday, he waved off calls from Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and other AI leaders to limit the pace of AI development and focus on safety measures.
“They can self-police. They can self-regulate,” Johnson said of the AI labs. “They don’t need the government to tell them to slow it down. If they want to slow it down, they should.”
Johnson also dismissed any moratoriums on AI development, which he said would cause the U.S. to lose its competitive edge to China.
“There’s a balance here,” he said.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) has said regulating AI would be a priority for Democrats if they flip the House. He has repeatedly criticized Republicans for not doing more.
“The AI safety issue is not a hoax, it’s very real,” Jeffries told reporters on Wednesday. “We should not leave town until something meaningful is done to slow down the pace of development.”
On Monday, Jeffries called the Ratepayer Protection Act an “appropriate step forward,” but said that “more clearly needs to be done.”
More than 100 House Democrats signed a letter early Wednesday demanding Johnson cancel recess to allow for votes on legislation creating AI safeguards — to no avail. Hours later, Johnson canceled Thursday-morning votes, allowing lawmakers to depart a day earlier than planned after he already had shortened the chamber’s September schedule by two weeks.
Congress has devoted significant attention to AI in recent years but so far has little to show for it. OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman and other tech leaders have testified at congressional hearings. (The Washington Post has a content partnership with OpenAI.) Lawmakers have formed groups to focus on the issue. And Congress itself has adopted AI tools. But overwhelmingly, efforts on Capitol Hill aimed at regulating the technology have gone nowhere.
This week, there are signs of a shift.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) tried Wednesday to pass legislation by unanimous consent that would mandate companies include a “kill switch” in artificial-intelligence models, but it was derailed by an objection from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky). A similar bill was introduced by Reps. Ted Lieu (D-California) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas).
Thune said Monday that he hoped the AI regulation bill that he has been working on with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) will come out soon. He said he would like any legislation to take a “light touch.”
“You don’t want to stifle innovation, but I think you also want to make sure that the more advanced threats can be mitigated and that there’s a capability in place to do that,” Thune told reporters.
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Theodoric Meyer contributed to this report.
