A Senate bill aimed at addressing voter concerns about data centers and their effect on monthly energy costs has failed to advance in a procedural vote.
The legislation fell short of the 60 votes required to move forward, receiving only 57 votes in favor and 43 opposed before senators departed Washington for the campaign trail.
Senate Republicans reserved one of the chamber’s final votes before the recess for the bill, hoping to highlight their efforts to address the financial burden data centers place on utility customers.
The Ratepayer Protection Act had previously passed the House by an overwhelming bipartisan margin of 417 to 3, building momentum ahead of the Senate vote.
The bill would set a federal standard requiring utility regulators to consider charging large power customers rates that cover the cost of system upgrades needed to serve them.
Republicans argued the legislation sends a clear message to regulators to take action, while Democrats said the bill amounts to little more than a suggestion without meaningful enforcement power.
Sen. Jon Husted, a Republican from Ohio, is the bill’s sponsor and is currently fighting a competitive reelection campaign, having been labeled the “face of data centers” in ads by his Democratic challenger, former Sen. Sherrod Brown.
Speaking on the Senate floor ahead of the vote, Sen. Martin Heinrich delivered a sharp rebuke of the legislation’s timing and substance, saying “this is nothing more than a messaging bill on the eve of an election” and that “Congress needs to pass a law with real teeth.”
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who has previously called for a national moratorium on data centers, dismissed the bill in equally blunt terms, calling it a “silly piece of nonsense” and demanding, “Give us something of substance and we’ll vote on it.”
Republicans paired the data center vote with a separate effort to advance legislation limiting congressional stock trading, which Democrats also blocked during the same session.
The dual failures left both parties trading accusations of bad faith ahead of a November election cycle in which energy costs and the rapid expansion of data center infrastructure have emerged as notable voter concerns.
The legislative stumble underscores a growing tension in Congress over how aggressively the federal government should regulate the energy demands of a booming data center industry expanding rapidly across multiple states.
