The Senate’s first procedural vote is Wednesday on the Ratepayer Protection Act, which directs state regulators to consider making data-center developers pay costs of serving data centers but requires no payment; passage before the election break is unlikely.
The House passed the bill 417–3 earlier this month, but it stalled in the Senate after Democrats objected to passing it by unanimous consent. Sen. Martin Heinrich said Congress should enact mandatory rules rather than merely tell states to consider shifting grid-upgrade costs to data-center developers.
Republicans hope the vote will give Husted an affordability message; he trails Democrat Sherrod Brown in public polling. Brown has criticized Ohio data-center projects, saying they received $2.5 billion in tax subsidies and leave consumers with higher electric bills.
