Make Big Tech Pay for Its Own Power Lines. Congress Should Put Trump's Pledge Into Law
The Senate blocked a House-passed data-center bill that only asked regulators to consider making large users pay for grid upgrades. In our view, the President's Ratepayer Protection Pledge sets the right rule, and Congress should make it binding.
By Clara Hughes
ALTAS WORLD NEWS OPINION | By Clara Hughes, Senior Features Writer | October 5, 2026 | 5-min read Ask people living near a proposed data center what worries them, and the electric bill is high on the list, along with farmland and water [4]. Americans are not against progress. They are against paying for someone else's power lines. In our view, President Trump got the principle right in March: Big Tech should pay its own way. Now Congress needs to write that principle into law, and last week's Senate vote showed it has not yet done so. Key Takeaways On Sept. 30, the Senate fell short, 57–43, of the 60 votes needed to take up a House-passed bill on data-center power costs. All but four Democrats voted no, as did both independents [1][2]. The bill was weaker than its title suggests. It would only have required state regulators to consider standards making data centers pay for their own grid upgrades [2]. In our view, Congress should write President Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge into binding law, with real teeth [3]. America needs data centers. They are the factories of the artificial-intelligence age, and in our view, if we do not build them, China will. But the cost of the new power plants and transmission lines that feed them has to land on the companies that profit from them, not on retirees in Ohio or families in Virginia. That is the fight now. What Happened in the Senate The bill, H.R. 9340, would amend a 1978 federal utility law "to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers," according to the Senate's official roll-call record [1]. The House passed it 417 to 3 on Sept. 16 [7]. On Sept. 30, the Senate voted 57–43 on a motion to begin debate. Under Senate rules, three-fifths of senators had to agree, so the motion failed [1]. Four Democrats voted yes: Maggie Hassan, Amy Klobuchar, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock. Independents Angus King and Bernie Sanders voted no [1]. Her…