Ratepayer Protection Act passes House in 417-3 vote
The House approved a bipartisan data-center power bill, sending a proposed ratepayer safeguard to a Senate with no clear next move.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
The Ratepayer Protection Act House passage cleared the chamber 417-3 on Wednesday, putting a bipartisan proposal aimed at keeping data-center power infrastructure costs off household and small-business electric bills before the Senate. The House used its suspension process, which required support from two-thirds of members voting, NBC News and CBS News reported.
The measure was co-sponsored by Reps. Gabe Evans, a Colorado Republican, and Kathy Castor, a Florida Democrat. It is not law: the bill now goes to the Senate, where NBC News reported action remains unclear.
What would the Ratepayer Protection Act do?
The legislation would establish a federal standard for state utility regulators to consider as they set rules for large, high-power data centers. Its goal is to have those facilities cover the costs tied to serving them, rather than shifting those costs to other customers.
Those costs can include new power generation, transmission lines and other upgrades needed to run a data center, according to Evans’s description of the bill reported by NBC News. CBS News similarly reported that it would encourage state regulators to set standards for large-load customers, including large data centers, to pay for new generation costs.
Data centers house the computing and storage systems used for artificial intelligence. Their expanding electricity needs have made grid capacity, local development and utility bills a political flashpoint. The International Energy Agency has estimated that U.S. data-center electricity use could more than double from 2024 levels by the end of the decade, CBS News reported.
What happens after the House vote?
Senators would have to take up and pass the Ratepayer Protection Act before it could reach the president. The Senate has separate data-center bills but had not advanced them, according to NBC News.
One of those measures is the GRID Act, introduced by Sens. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, and Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat. Hawley’s office says that proposal would require new data centers to use power sources separate from the U.S. grid, along with disclosure requirements. That is a different approach from the House bill’s proposed standard for state regulators.
The House vote also does not turn a White House effort into a legal requirement. President Donald Trump’s separate ratepayer-protection pledge is voluntary and nonbinding, the Associated Press reported through PBS.
Backers and critics agree the pressure is real
Evans said after the vote that families should not subsidize data-center energy demand. The bill’s lopsided vote showed cross-party support, yet several Democratic supporters said it did not go far enough.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called it “a step forward” while saying more was needed, CBS News reported. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey described it as imperfect and only one part of the wider debate over data centers and AI.
Public concern has also grown. An NBC News Decision Desk poll powered by SurveyMonkey found nearly 70% of respondents opposed construction of AI data centers in their neighborhood, including 45% who said they strongly opposed it. Readers can review NBC News’ report on the House vote for the full account.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.