5 minPolitics
Senate's Final Session Before Midterms Centers on Data Center Costs and Political Positioning
The Senate's last week in session before the midterms was dominated by a blocked Republican bill on data center electricity costs, a stock-trading ban with voter ID, and confirmation of Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, as both parties positioned for the Ohio Senate race and broader midterm messaging.
The Senate's final week in session before the midterms was less about legislating than about positioning, as Republicans forced votes on bills Democrats were certain to block and both sides looked ahead to the November elections. All 100 senators understood why they were in Washington at the end of September: there was a college sports bill, the confirmation of Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling, and a high-profile hearing with former special counsel Jack Smith. But the underlying purpose, according to senators themselves, was political.
Democrats blocked two Republican measures that the GOP said voters want. One was the Ratepayer Protection Act, aimed at curbing the costs consumers pay for data centers. The other was a plan to restrict stock trades by lawmakers, which also included a voter ID requirement — a priority for the Republican base. Republican senators knew Democrats would not accept these proposals, and Democratic senators would not accept any of the GOP's legislative propositions.
The Ratepayer Protection Act became the center of the week's political maneuvering. Both parties recognize that voters are anxious about artificial intelligence and increasingly frustrated with data centers. An internal GOP memo in August revealed that the party was especially concerned about what the issue meant for Sen. Jon Husted, R-Ohio, whom Gov. Mike DeWine appointed to the Senate last year to succeed Vice President JD Vance. Husted had helped foster data center development as an Ohio official, and his race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown is one of the nation's most contentious Senate contests.
Republicans argued the bill would protect consumers from rising utility costs tied to data center construction. «(People) ought to be guaranteed no electricity bills will go up by a cent because of a data center,» said Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo. «It sends a clear message that these AI companies and these data centers can't just come into local communities and strip mine out (land). Raise the electricity rates. Kick people off the grid. Take their water.»
Democrats countered that the bill lacked enforcement. «It is a sham. A charade because it has no enforcement,» said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., argued that everything in the bill could already be done by a state regulator or a data center developer, and that the bill required nothing of them. When asked whether something was better than nothing, Kaine disagreed. «No. You shouldn't trick people. And this is not even something,» he said. «It's nothing.» Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the measure «a fraud» that «does not require any protections at all.»
The politics were explicit. Democrats claimed Republicans called the vote to help Husted in Ohio. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., when asked whether the vote was designed to benefit Husted, said, «I think it will help him.» Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., agreed, calling it «clearly a political ploy» that is «not something that's good for the American people. But it's certainly good for Sen. Husted.» Sen. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., said Husted was trying to pass legislation «so he could go home and run a campaign ad.» Husted conceded the point: «We gave everybody a chance to do something about affordability and the Democrats blocked it. So we'll go campaign on it.»
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., offered a broader view of the week. «Has there ever been a late September or October before an election that wasn't all politics?» he asked. The shifting position of Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., illustrated the dynamic. Welch said on September 23 that he supported the bill after it cleared the House, but he flipped to a nay vote when it reached the floor. «One, they won't allow us to have an amendment. And the problem with this bill is that it has no teeth,» he explained.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the measure «ought to be something that should be a no brainer here on the floor of the Senate.» But the week's outcome suggested both parties may prefer to keep the issue alive for the campaign rather than resolve it. With the Senate set to leave town, the data center fight — and the broader affordability message — now moves to the campaign trail, where Husted and other Republicans intend to use the blocked votes as evidence of Democratic obstruction.
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