Democrats block data center bill

Senate Democrats blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act on Wednesday. The vote was fifty-seven to forty-three, short of the sixty needed to break a filibuster.

What the bill would do

The Ratepayer Protection Act would set a federal standard on data centers. It would instruct state public utility commissions to make developers cover their own costs of water and electricity to consumers.

House passed it overwhelmingly

The bill passed the House two weeks ago by a vote of four hundred seventeen to three. Nearly every House Democrat voted for the measure.

Husted's political stakes

The Senate version is led by appointed Senator Jon Husted, Republican of Ohio, who is locked in a competitive battle seeking his first full Senate term. He faces heat from Democratic rival Sherrod Brown, a former senator.

Brown brands Husted as data center champion

Sherrod Brown has branded Husted the face of data centers for promoting developments when Husted was lieutenant governor. Husted says Democrats should vote for the bill to lower electricity prices.

Schumer calls bill a fraud

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the bill would be merely optional for states and would not achieve much beyond partisan messaging. He called it a toothless messaging bill.

“Plain and simple, the Ratepayer Protection Act is a fraud. It does not require any protections at all.”

Schumer pushes stronger bills

Schumer said Republicans should instead take up bills by Senators Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico that would go further in imposing cost-related rules on data centers.

Voters strongly oppose data centers

An NBC News poll this month found data centers unpopular. By nearly six to one, voters said they would be less likely to vote for a candidate who supports building a data center in their community.

Democrats trusted more on the issue

The same poll found voters trust Democrats over Republicans by a margin of twelve percentage points to deal with data centers. This gives Democrats an advantage on a deeply unpopular issue.