The House voted 417-3 to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act, the first data center bill of the 119th Congress, requiring large AI facilities to cover the full cost of the power plants and transmission lines built to serve them.
The House on Wednesday passed the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that requires large artificial intelligence data centers to cover the full cost of the new power generation, transmission lines and grid upgrades built to serve them. The measure cleared the chamber by a vote of 417-3, one of the widest margins of the year.
It is the first data center bill to pass the House in the 119th Congress, and it landed on what was expected to be the chamber's final working day before the November midterm elections. Speaker Mike Johnson said the legislation "strikes the right balance of protecting local communities while keeping America on the cutting edge of AI development."
The bill is sponsored by Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Colo., with Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., as its Democratic co-sponsor. It does not ban data centers, cap their growth or hand Washington new authority to regulate them directly. Instead, it amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA), the 1978 law that governs how utilities sell power, so that state regulators must consider a federal standard before approving new supply.
Under that standard, data centers that draw 100 megawatts or more would pay the full incremental cost of the generation, transmission and distribution upgrades built specifically to serve them. Developers would also have to post financial assurances so that a canceled or relocated project does not leave a host community holding an unfinished bill.
State authority over electricity markets stays intact. Supporters describe the approach as a floor rather than a mandate, a way to stop the cost of a private buildout from quietly migrating onto the bills of families, farms and small businesses that never asked for it.
The lopsided vote reflects how thoroughly the data center debate has become a stand-in for affordability. Evans, the sponsor, framed the choice in national terms, arguing the United States can either build the power systems its technology sector needs or become dependent on competitors like China for the digital infrastructure of the next century.
"We cannot accelerate this growth on the back of Americans working hard to pay their electric bills at the end of the month," Evans said on the floor.
Castor made the same case from the other side of the aisle, saying her Florida neighbors are watching their power bills climb and should not be asked to subsidize the energy demands of the largest technology companies. Rep. Frank Pallone of New Jersey, the ranking Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, called the bill a "modest first start" and said it would not be the last word on the issue.
Republicans pointed to the upside of the buildout as well. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise noted that a data center in Richland Parish, Louisiana, generated tax revenue large enough to fund bonuses of up to $50,000 for local teachers. That, he argued, is what the boom looks like in communities that welcome it.
The vote lands in the middle of a broader fight over how fast the country should build. President Donald Trump has made AI dominance a centerpiece of his second term, pressing to keep advanced computing, chips and the power to run them on American soil while warning that hesitation cedes the field to Beijing.
He has already answered local resistance in blunt terms, warning holdout communities that refusal would leave them "backwards and poor." The administration has paired that message with moves to speed up the permitting and air-quality reviews that data center developers say slow projects by years.
Not everyone in Congress is satisfied with a modest step. Some lawmakers, including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, have called for a full moratorium on new AI data centers until safety, price and environmental safeguards are in place. More than 100 House Democrats signed a letter this week asking Johnson to keep members in Washington until Congress advances what they call meaningful AI guardrails.
The bill now heads to the Senate, where its future is far less certain. The chamber has its own energy and AI agenda, a narrower calendar, and a habit of rewriting House tax and utility measures before sending them back. Leadership on both sides has signaled interest in the underlying idea, but there is no companion bill moving on the same timetable.
What the House vote does establish is political consensus on the principle. A 417-3 margin means members in competitive districts from both parties can tell voters they acted on utility costs before heading home to campaign.
For ratepayers, the practical effect depends on state utility commissions, which would gain a federal benchmark to lean on in rate cases involving very large loads. For developers, it means the era of building first and negotiating the power bill later is closing.
The next marker is the November 3 midterms. Whoever returns in January will face a grid under strain, a technology sector still racing to expand, and a public that has made clear it will not keep absorbing the tab.
The House voted 417-3 to pass the Ratepayer Protection Act, the first data center bill of the 119th Congress, requiring large AI facilities to cover the full cost of the power plants and transmission lines built to serve them.
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