Senate Republican Jon Husted’s Ratepayer Protection Act is heading toward a floor vote, exposing deep divisions inside the Democratic caucus over how to handle AI data center energy costs.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) is pushing to kill the bill, but his caucus is not fully aligned after House Democrats overwhelmingly backed the proposal with 206 votes.
The floor fight carries significant electoral weight for the Ohio Senate race, where Democratic challenger and former Sen. Sherrod Brown has made Husted’s data center record a central campaign issue.
Husted, a Republican who was appointed to his Senate seat to replace Vice President JD Vance, is now facing a competitive reelection contest rated a toss-up by election analysts.
Schumer dismissed Husted’s legislation as a “fraud” on Wednesday, signaling he would urge Democratic colleagues to block it during a scheduled floor vote later in the week.
“Sen. Husted’s bill is a fraud, it’s voluntary, no company has to do it. The bill we have is mandatory. It is much stronger, and it is what is needed,” Schumer said.
Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, blocked the bill last week when Husted sought unanimous consent to pass it.
“The Ratepayer Protection Act does nothing to meaningfully address the rising costs of AI data center development. Instead, it relies on a voluntary framework that does not require AI data centers to pay the full cost of the energy they consume or the strain they place on the grid,” Heinrich said.
Husted argues that his bill would force data centers to pay their own way by establishing a federal standard and requiring states to consider that standard when crafting their own data center regulations.
Heinrich has promoted an alternative proposal, the GRID Savings Act of 2026, which would grant the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to craft rules for facilities using 150 megawatts or more of power.
The GRID Savings Act would also obligate data centers to cover any costs associated with the additional load they impose on the electrical grid, going further than the voluntary framework in Husted’s legislation.
Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, the Democrats’ deputy whip, described the Ratepayer Protection Act as “kind of weak” but stopped short of announcing whether party leaders would formally whip against it.
The political stakes are unusually high given the Ohio race, with Senate Democrats wary that advancing Husted’s bill could hand the vulnerable incumbent a legislative win heading into a tight election.
The tension reflects a broader struggle within the Democratic Party over how aggressively the federal government should regulate the energy demands of the rapidly expanding AI data center industry.
