Bill Making Data Centers Pay Clears First Senate Test

WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 — TheThe Senate voted 73–25 on Monday evening to move ahead with the bipartisan permitting bill that would make data centers pay for the grid upgrades they need. It was the bill’s first floor vote, and it cleared the 60 votes it needed with 13 to spare.

Fifty-one Republicans and 22 members of the Democratic caucus voted yes. The vote was on cloture on the motion to take the bill up; amendments, a vote on passage and the House all lie ahead.

The roll was called at 5:31 p.m. on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, which the Senate Daily Press Gallery calls the “legislative vehicle” for the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act.The VehicleOn paper, H.R. 2347 is the Survivor Justice Tax Prevention Act. The Senate is using it to carry the permitting bill, whose data-center rules this paper set out on Sunday. Its sponsors are Sens. Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee, Republicans, and Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich, Democrats.

The Count

Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota was the only Republican to vote no; Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana did not vote. The Democratic caucus split, 22 for and 24 against. Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, voted yes, along with the two Democratic sponsors. Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Mr. Heinrich’s New Mexico colleague, voted no, as did Sens. Dick Durbin and Elizabeth Warren. Of the two independents, Angus King voted yes and Bernie Sanders no.

It is a turn from Sept. 30, when the Senate rejected, 57–43, cloture on taking up H.R. 9340, a bill to set a federal standard for recovering “the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers.”

The White House

The White House budget office put the administration on record on Monday.The StatementA Statement of Administration Policy comes from the Office of Management and Budget. This one, dated Nov. 9, names S. 5653, the bill’s number when it was introduced in the Senate on Sept. 30. “The bill directly protects American ratepayers from being forced to subsidize data centers’ power consumption,” its statement says. “Data centers connecting to the grid at scale will bear their own transmission costs, and States will be empowered to use revenue from large computational loads to lower electricity bills for working families.” It says the bill would “make President Trump’s Ratepayer Protection Pledge the law of the land.”

The president then muddied it. At a White House briefing Monday, President Trump told reporters he was “behind” the bill “100 percent” but would not approve wind turbines, The Hill reported. “The bill hasn’t been fully negotiated,” he said, by The Hill’s account. “I will not approve wind turbines because wind turbines are a major loser.” Newsweek carried the same remarks. Democrats back the bill partly for its help to renewable power, including wind, The Hill noted.

The bill hasn’t been fully negotiated.

A White House official told Newsweek that Mr. Trump “stands 100% behind the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act.”

The bill includes the Ratepayer Protection Act, “legislation that will make potential data centers pay their own way instead of American consumers facing increased costs through rising utility bills,” Ms. Capito said in floor remarks as prepared for delivery. “BAAJA will mean billions in lower energy costs, and tens of billions of dollars more in ratepayer savings because of the provisions cracking down on data centers,” Mr. Whitehouse said at a press conference with Mr. Heinrich before the vote. “We don’t have to wait for the new Congress to start lowering costs,” Mr. Heinrich said. “The Democrats supporting this bill are sleepwalking into catastrophe,” Brett Hartl of the Center for Biological Diversity told Newsweek, arguing that it would give Mr. Trump sweeping power to entrench fossil fuels.

What Comes Next

The Senate returns at noon Tuesday to the motion, post-cloture, and roll-call votes are expected, the Daily Press Gallery said. Mr. Whitehouse has promised a “healthy amendment process,” Heatmap reported, though how many amendments will reach a vote “is not publicly known.” Heatmap reported pushes for at least two amendments, one of them to strip the bill’s changes to the National Historic Preservation Act. Some senators who voted to proceed “may become ‘nays’ depending on how the amendment process goes,” Heatmap wrote.

The House is another hurdle. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said in a statement to Politico on Nov. 5 that he opposed the bill in its current form, Inside Climate News reported. Asked at a press conference on Monday whether he would support it, he said it was “still under review,” Reuters reported.

Two big power producers that reported on Monday told investors the data-center deals are still coming: NRG Energy said its 1.2-gigawatt data-center power project “remains on track,” Constellation Energy raised the midpoint of its 2026 adjusted operating earnings guidance, and both stocks closed more than 10 percent higher.