Sen. Jon Husted’s (R-OH) effort to unanimously pass a bill that would urge states to consider forcing tech companies to cover increased electricity costs associated with data centers was blocked by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM), with the Democrat arguing that the legislation does not go far enough.
Electricity prices jumped nearly 7 percent year over year in 2025 for American households, according to a Goldman Sachs analysis. Prices are expected to continue rising, as data centers make up 40 percent of the growth in demand, the bank said.
The Ratepayer Protection Act stalled in the Senate on Thursday just a day after it passed the House 417-3, aimed at having states hold hearings about potentially making companies behind the artificial intelligence (AI) data centers sprouting up across the country pay up, but the bill would not actually force states to enact any such rules.
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Before Heinrich’s objection to the proposed unanimous consent, Husted argued that the bill “would require state utility regulators to consider standards ensuring that large load customers pay the full incremental cost of the infrastructure needed to serve them.”
“This is how we make sure American families are not left footing the bill for energy infrastructure required by data centers,” the Ohio Republican explained.
According to the New Mexico Democrat, the legislation was “not enough,” despite it passing the House with flying bipartisan colors.
“It’s not enough for us to tell states to consider making data centers pay for grid updates,” Heinrich said, after acknowledging that he and Husted agree on the principle that big tech developers should foot their own costs. “Rather than voluntary pledges or suggestions to states, Congress needs to pass real legislation with real teeth.”
Heinrich then went on to vouch for his own GRID Savings Act, which he said would “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, to actually do it, to pay for the upgrades they need.”
Husted argued that if Heinrich’s provision that would actually require companies to pay for increased power costs had passed the House, then he would “have every right” to stand against the Ratepayer Protection Act.
“The reason that I’m proposing that we pass this piece of legislation is because it passed the House 417-3,” the Ohio lawmaker said. “If the gentleman from New Mexico’s provision had passed the House 417-3, he would have every right to stand up and ask that we do this. But before we leave here, we ought to do something on a matter that the American people have asked us to do something about, and we have the opportunity to do that with the Ratepayer Protection Act.”
“It is a shame that this opportunity has been missed today, but I will be back to push this issue forward,” Husted added. “We have a bipartisan opportunity to get this done, we should do it immediately.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.