Data Center Backlash Splits GOP, Stalls House Bill
Data Center Backlash Splits GOP, Stalls House Bill
The News
House Republicans are split over when and how far to go on legislation aimed at data centers, even as voter anger over the AI facilities drives recall campaigns and midterm attack ads in both parties.
The bill at the center of the fight, dubbed the "Ratepayer Protection Act" by supporters, cleared the House Energy and Commerce Committee 52-0 in July and still has no floor date.
Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie, R-Ky., said Wednesday no consensus has been reached but that he hopes the electricity ratepayer bill moves this month, with the week after Labor Day the likeliest target, Roll Call reported.
A GOP leadership aide said no scheduling decisions have been made "as leadership has heard concerns from members."
What the Bill Does
The measure, led by Reps. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., and Kathy Castor, D-Fla. — both in competitive races — would codify parts of the "Ratepayer Protection Pledge" that President Donald Trump got more than 300 utilities, electric cooperatives and AI "hyperscalers" to sign. It would require states to consider adopting federal standards ensuring data centers and other large-load customers cover the cost of the grid upgrades they force, so those costs aren't passed to other ratepayers.
Critics inside the conference say it singles out data centers over other heavy industrial power users, would slow domestic AI development against China, imposes a one-size-fits-all federal standard on local decisions, and is unnecessary given the voluntary pledge.
Timeline
Four incumbent council members in Festus, Missouri, are defeated after backing a proposed $6 billion data center on about 360 acres, Newsweek reported.
Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., calls for a moratorium on new data centers. That same month Guthrie, Energy Subcommittee Chairman Bob Latta of Ohio and Oversight Chairman John Joyce of Pennsylvania write to David Sacks, Michael Kratsios and FBI Director Kash Patel urging an investigation into whether Chinese, Russian and other adversarial interests have promoted anti-data center rhetoric.
Yukon, Oklahoma, Vice Mayor Jeff Wootton resigns after a recall petition naming him is filed.
The Energy and Commerce Committee approves the ratepayer bill 52-0.
An internal National Republican Senatorial Committee memo, first reported by Axios and obtained by NPR, calls data centers a "sleeper issue for the entire election cycle" and warns the tech industry that a loss by Ohio Sen. Jon Husted would make politicians nationwide wary of them.
Trump posts on Truth Social: "The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor."
Independence, Missouri, First District Councilman John Perkins is removed in a recall election, 68 percent to 32 percent, over his vote for an incentive package including a 90 percent property tax abatement for a 2.1-million-square-foot Nebius data center campus. A YouGov poll the same day finds 63 percent of adults somewhat or strongly oppose a new data center in their community.
The Energy and Commerce Environment Subcommittee holds a hearing on a discussion draft barring states from letting public water systems recover data center costs from anyone but the data center's owner and operator. House GOP leaders announce the chamber won't be in session after the week following Labor Day unless it votes on an amended budget resolution.
Reactions
Guthrie said members need to be able to go home and tell voters they acted: "I think it is important for you to go back [home] and say … I heard what you said. I've gone back to D.C. and I've addressed your concern, at least from the House perspective." He acknowledged opposition "downtown" from the "data center world" but said the bill "protects local communities and, I think, allows data centers to be successful," adding, "you can protect local ratepayers and you can make sure we beat China, which is the No. 1 priority."
Pallone hit Republican leadership for sitting on a unanimous bill: "Imagine that, the House Republican leadership not wanting to support a bill that helps ensure Big Tech pays for the energy these data centers consume."
Castor, whose district is rated Lean Republican after Florida's redistricting, said inaction would "hurt the Republicans." "It's a unanimous bill on something that is the front burner for everybody across the country right now, and they bury it," she said.
Evans said at Thursday's hearing that communities need assurance the buildout is responsible but that the infrastructure must stay in the U.S.: "We have to have the digital infrastructure to beat Communist China and make sure that our sensitive data is not being stored in China."
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., told Fox Business Network's "Mornings" on Thursday that the industry is losing the argument: "Data centers are not doing a good job of messaging, and they need to do a better job." Carter, a former mayor, said companies must work with local leaders "before they're announced that they're coming" and keep projects off valuable farmland.
Joe Horn, an organizer of the Yukon, Oklahoma, recall, told Newsweek residents were shut out: "When Pillmore was elected only 303 people voted for him, in contrast to the 1704 people that signed the petition to remove him. Yukon was asleep; Yukon is no longer asleep."
Darrell M. West of the Brookings Institution told NPR the president is out of step with his own voters: "Trump seems oblivious to public opinion on a number of fronts. Typically, when the public shifts, politicians shift with them. Trump is not doing that on data centers."
What's Next
The week after Labor Day is the likeliest window for a floor vote, because House GOP leaders say the chamber goes home after it unless an amended budget resolution comes up. If the ratepayer bill misses that window, members campaign through the midterms with nothing passed.
The water-cost discussion draft is still in early stages and has not been marked up.
Three data-center recall votes are set for Nov. 3: Yukon Mayor Brian Pillmore in Oklahoma, District 3 Councilmember Harry Thomas in San Angelo, Texas, and Councilwoman Elaine Ferris in Mason, Michigan. Pillmore is running again in his recall election.
More
Campaigns and outside groups have spent more than $45 million since January on ads mentioning data centers in this year's governor, House and Senate races, according to an NPR analysis of AdImpact data — more than $22 million backing Republicans and more than $21 million backing Democrats, with independents accounting for the rest. Democrats ran nearly twice as many such ads, 127 to 67.
Georgia's race for governor leads all contests with $12.8 million across nine ads. In Ohio's Senate race, backers of Democrat Sherrod Brown have spent millions casting Republican Sen. Jon Husted as "the face of data centers." Husted, who championed the industry as lieutenant governor, has introduced legislation to protect ratepayers and told Spectrum News his position hasn't changed: "I was always trying to hold these companies accountable."
Ballotpedia counted 329 officials targeted for recall nationwide in the first half of 2026, the highest midyear figure since it began tracking in 2014, with data center fights driving campaigns in Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, California and across Michigan.
The industry is fighting back. A new group, Infrastructure for America, made up of companies that own the buildings and equipment leased to hyperscalers, released fact sheets this week arguing the sector's annual water use is negligible next to golf courses and California almond growers, and that Texas and Virginia — home to 25 percent of U.S. data centers — have lower average residential electricity bills than other states.
Poll
Should the House vote on the data center ratepayer bill before members leave to campaign?
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