Senate Democrats blocked a bill Wednesday that would have made AI companies and data centers, not ordinary ratepayers, cover the electricity costs tied to the data center boom. The vote came despite the bill clearing the House with broad bipartisan support.
The legislation, called the Ratepayer Protection Act, would have set a standard requiring data centers and the AI companies that run them to bear the costs of the electricity they consume. Rising electricity bills tied to data center growth have become a major concern for voters heading into the midterms.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., led the effort to block the bill. Four Senate Democrats broke with him to support it: Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock of Georgia, and Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire.
Schumer argued the bill had no real enforcement mechanism and called it a political stunt.
“The Ratepayer Protection Act is a fraud. It does not require any protections at all,” Schumer said. “While Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, Republicans are offering a toothless messaging bill.”
The bill’s fate carries direct political consequences in Ohio, where Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, is running roughly three points behind Democrat Sherrod Brown in the RealClear Polling average. Husted was appointed in 2024 to replace then-vice presidential candidate JD Vance and is not seeking a full term in his own right in this special election.
Brown has made data centers a central line of attack against Husted, casting him as the “face of data centers” in a race that could help decide which party controls the Senate majority after November.
Husted pushed back on the idea that the bill was a partisan exercise, noting it passed the House with only three Democrats voting against it. By killing it in the Senate, Democrats have handed him a new argument to make to Ohio voters: that his opponents in Washington stood in the way of relief on an issue hitting their electricity bills directly.
Whether that argument closes the gap in Ohio remains to be seen, but with the midterms weeks away, every vote and every talking point is now in play.
