{"id":"7bb65218ad2fd026","congress_number":119,"bill_type":"hr","bill_number":"6529","title":"Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act","plain_summary":"Would prevent AI data center electricity demand from raising household utility bills, likely by shifting cost allocation to data center operators. It responds to rate increases in regions with heavy AI buildout.","ai_relevance_score":0.75,"topics":["labor","transparency"],"status":"markup","introduced_at":"2025-12-09","last_action_at":"2026-07-21","last_action_text":"Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 44 - 0.","sponsor_id":"L000601","full_text_url":null,"created_at":"2026-08-27T17:36:46.532Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:29.132Z","ai_reasoning":null,"reported_at":"2026-07-21","passed_house_at":null,"passed_senate_at":null,"became_law_at":null,"recorded_votes":[],"classifier":null,"url":"https://whovotedwhy.com/bills/7bb65218ad2fd026","congress_gov_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6529","sponsor":{"id":"L000601","bioguide_id":"L000601","first_name":"Greg","last_name":"Landsman","full_name":"Greg Landsman","party":"D","state":"OH","chamber":"house","district":"1","title":"Representative","photo_url":null,"twitter_handle":"repgreglandsman","official_website":"https://landsman.house.gov","fec_candidate_ids":["H2OH01194"],"lis_id":null,"is_active":true,"term_start":"2025-01-03","term_end":"2027-01-03","created_at":"2026-09-08T22:51:51.014Z","updated_at":"2026-09-09T02:08:13.531Z"},"roll_calls":[{"id":"ad943b585352c360","chamber":"house","kind":"committee","category":"passage","congress":119,"session":null,"number":null,"date":"2026-07-21","question":"Ordered to be Reported","description":"Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act","legislation":"H.R. 6529","amendment":null,"committee":"Energy and Commerce Committee","bill_id":"7bb65218ad2fd026","result":"Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 44 - 0.","yeas":44,"nays":0,"positions_recorded":0,"positions_unmatched":0,"source_url":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/6529/all-actions","ai_match":"bill","fetched_at":"2026-09-11T14:58:52.438Z"}],"citing_statements":[{"id":"71ed21f78a78a546","politician_id":"L000601","type":"press_release","content":"Cincinnati, OH – This week, Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01) announced five efforts around data centers, lowering drug costs, and building up domestic supply chains advanced out of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.\n\nData Centers\n\nCongressman Landsman’s Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act requires the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to hold a conference with major stakeholders on how to protect residents from increased costs. FERC is then required to submit a report with detailed recommendations and best practices to ensure energy costs associated with AI data centers are not passed onto communities.\n\nLowering Drug Costs\n\nThe bipartisan Biosimilar Red Tape Elimination Act with Congressman August Pfluger (R-TX-11) improves access to lower-cost prescription medications by deeming “biosimilar” drugs as interchangeable with their name-brand counterparts upon FDA approval.\n\nThe Lower Costs, More Transparency Act is a bipartisan bill that makes health care pricing more transparent and addresses rising prescription drug costs. Congressman Landsman’s amendment to the bill will ensure executives of health insurance plans, hospitals, labs, imaging services, and ambulatory surgical centers are held accountable for the accuracy and completeness of the pricing information they publish.\n\nLastly, language authored by Landsman and Republican Congressman Bob Latta (R-OH-5) was included in the package to require the FDA to speed up the process to bring over-the-counter drugs to market. This will bring new and more affordable options to market, to help alleviate the nation’s healthcare affordability crisis.\n\nDomestic Supply Chains\n\nThe bipartisan Environmental Monitoring and Remediation Technology Assessment Initiative (EMRTAI) Authorization Act co-led by Reps. Landsman and August Pfluger (R-TX-11) creates a competitive grant program to help recover valuable critical minerals from polluted or contaminated sites while cleaning those sites up.\n\nCongressman Landsman:\n\n“These are priorities Americans have been asking Congress to address. Now, these efforts are moving forward and one step closer to becoming law.”\n\n###","url":"https://landsman.house.gov/posts/landsman-passes-five-affordability-and-transparency-efforts-out-of-committee-advancing-to-the-house-flooor","published_at":"2026-07-22","ai_topics":["data_centers","regulation"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Landsman advanced his Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act requiring FERC to convene stakeholders and recommend ways to keep AI data center energy costs from being passed on to families.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["7bb65218ad2fd026"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"7bb65218ad2fd026","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"00f7010ad2bb0aba","politician_id":"T000482","type":"press_release","content":"Today, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) supported the passage of two bipartisan pieces of legislation to protect ratepayers from increased utility costs caused by data centers during a House Energy and Commerce Committee markup. Both bills, the Ratepayer Protection Act and the Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act, are now eligible for consideration on the House floor.\n\n“It’s our job to make sure that when data centers are built, they're built on terms that work for the families who live nearby,” Congresswoman Trahan said. “That's what this legislation gets right. It says something simple. If you build the data center, you pay for the data center. The construction costs, the utility costs – those fall on the company, not the family down the street. This bill gives states a strong standard to make sure large load developers foot that bill themselves.”\n\nDuring the Committee markup, Trahan spoke in favor of both pieces of legislation. Footage of her remarks can be accessed HERE or by clicking the image below. A transcript is embedded below.\n\nData centers are the fastest-growing source of new electricity demand in the country, and the grid upgrades needed to serve them are not free. Someone has to pay for the new power plants, transmission lines, and substations, and too often that cost gets spread across everyone's monthly bill, leaving families and small businesses to subsidize the energy needs of some of the largest corporations in the world.\n\nTo combat this problem, the Ratepayer Protection Act gives state utility regulators clear standards to ensure large-load customers, meaning any new data or information storage facility drawing 100 megawatts or more, cover the full cost of the infrastructure they require. It requires those customers to recover the full incremental cost of grid upgrades over time and to provide financial assurances, so ratepayers stay protected even if a data center scales back or leaves entirely.\n\nSimilarly, the Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act directs the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to convene major stakeholders to examine how to shield residents from these rising costs, and it requires FERC to deliver a report with concrete recommendations and best practices so the energy costs tied to AI data centers are not passed on to ordinary consumers.\n\nDuring her remarks, Trahan pointed out that both bills are important first steps in protecting families from bearing the burden of increased utility costs caused by data centers. She argued that Congress must go further, including by passing a provision in her bipartisan Great American AI Act discussion draft released last month to improve data center efficiency and reduce their environmental footprint.\n\n“Both of these bills are good first steps, Mr. Chairman, but we should also be honest about what they don't do. They don't fully address the water these facilities draw from our communities. They don't answer the concern back home that when the grid is stretched, families worry they'll be deprioritized,” Congresswoman Trahan continued. “People in the district I represent are raising these questions, and they deserve answers. That's exactly why, when Congressman Obernolte and I drafted the Great American AI Act, we included provisions to make data centers more efficient and lessen their environmental footprint. Because the smarter we build these facilities, the less strain they put on the grid, on our water, and on the families who live nearby.”\n\nBoth bills passed unanimously and now move to the House floor for consideration by the full House of Representatives.\n\n-----------------------------------\n\nCongresswoman Lori Trahan\n\nRemarks as Delivered\n\nHouse Energy and Committee Markup\n\nJuly 21, 2026\n\nThank you, Mr. Chairman. I too support the Ratepayer Protection Act and look forward to advancing this bipartisan legislation to the House floor today.\n\nRight now, families across our country are afraid to open up their el","url":"https://trahan.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3815","published_at":"2026-07-21","ai_topics":["data_centers","regulation","transparency"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Trahan backs bipartisan bills forcing AI data centers to pay their own grid costs and calls for going further on efficiency and environmental rules.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["7bb65218ad2fd026","a43d67bbafe647d3"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"7bb65218ad2fd026","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"a43d67bbafe647d3","method":"title"}],"classifier":null},{"id":"3212adc65bf180a8","politician_id":"L000601","type":"press_release","content":"Cincinnati, OH – This week, Congressman Greg Landsman (D-OH-01) introduced legislation to combat the environmental impacts that come along with Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centers.\n\nAs a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Congressman Landsman is leading the effort to ensure AI data centers are federally regulated to protect hardworking Southwest Ohio families.\n\nLandsman introduced the Protecting Communities from Data Center Impacts Act– legislation that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to contract with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to study the environmental impacts of data centers. Then, develop best practices to combat those environmental impacts.\n\nThe study would evaluate issues on noise pollution, air pollution, water consumption, water supply, carbon emissions, waste, including electronic waste.\n\nEarlier this year, Landsman introduced the Do No Harm Data Centers Act and the Protecting Families from AI Data Center Energy Costs Act.\n\nCongressman Landsman:\n\n“There are legitimate concerns about pollution and AI data centers. Our bill makes sure these environmental impacts are studied so communities have the information they need and peace of mind they deserve.”\n\nRead the bill here.\n\n###","url":"https://landsman.house.gov/posts/landsman-introduced-third-ai-data-center-bill-in-congress","published_at":"2026-07-10","ai_topics":["data_centers","regulation","research"],"ai_stance":"support","ai_summary":"Landsman calls for federal regulation of AI data centers and an EPA-commissioned study of their environmental impacts.","ai_processed":true,"bill_ids":["7bb65218ad2fd026","4abc5fee96d13076","c5e3b9e5af0b0984"],"ai_relevance_score":null,"bill_refs":[{"bill_id":"7bb65218ad2fd026","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"4abc5fee96d13076","method":"title"},{"bill_id":"c5e3b9e5af0b0984","method":"title"}],"classifier":null}],"provenance":{"commit":"38624a3af16ec6b3fff9b27c7d1d9f2cb7fe9152","generated_at":"2026-09-11T15:06:57.105Z","schema_version":2,"manifest":"https://whovotedwhy.com/data/index.json"}}