Senate rejects bill over who should pay data center power costs

The defeat leaves households and small businesses without new federal protection as states keep fighting over AI-driven electricity bills.

The U.S. Senate has blocked the Ratepayer Protection Act, a bill meant to shift data-center-related grid costs away from households and small businesses, leaving no new federal protection in place for those bills. The measure failed on September 30 by 57-43, three votes short of the 60 needed, after already passing the House two weeks earlier. It was tied to President Donald Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge and was introduced in the Senate by Jon Husted, but Democrats largely opposed it as too weak because it would only ask regulators to consider the standard rather than require it. The defeat keeps the fight over who pays for AI infrastructure alive as states and communities continue debating electricity-price impacts from new data centers.