Senate Democrats blocked a Republican data center bill that passed the House 417-3, calling it "toothless" because it only requires states to consider adopting federal standards.
During a live broadcast on LiveNOW from FOX, a reporter said the bill is meant to keep data center grid costs from being passed on to consumers. Democrats' complaint, she said, is simple:
It's not actually requiring them to adopt.
The Hill reports that Democrats did not provide the Ratepayer Protection Act the 60 votes it needed. The bill is sponsored by Republican Sen. Jon Husted of Ohio. The New York Post says the failure gives Republicans a new line of attack in the closing weeks of the Nov. 3 midterm campaigns.
Developing, unverified: the broadcast transcript is partly garbled, so the exact wording of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's comments on the House-passed bill is not clear from it.
The Gateway Pundit, a conservative-leaning site, quotes Schumer saying: "Americans are demanding real guardrails on AI and data centers, but all the Republicans offer is a toothless messaging bill." It attributes his "a fraud" line to The Hill. Sen. Gary Peters said, "I wish it actually had some teeth." Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont, described as the lone Democrat who had backed it, said: "This bill doesn't do anything."
Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, told the reporter it was "a pretty thinly veiled messaging attempt." She said it was the only legislation Congress could have passed on the issue before the midterms.
She named four Senate Democrats who voted for it: Hassan, Klobuchar, Ossoff and Warnock. She called Ossoff the most vulnerable Democrat up for reelection. She said they argued it did not go far enough. Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, said it isn't something he would campaign on, but he doesn't think ill of House colleagues who would.
Earlier in the broadcast, the reporter said Husted faces a tough race against former Sen. Sherrod Brown. She said Brown has hammered him on data centers. Husted said it is the only bill with a chance to pass before the election.
The stock trading vote also failed. The reporter said the Republican Stop Insider Trading Act restricts new stock purchases by members of Congress and their immediate families. It does not reach stocks they already hold. Democrats in both chambers want a complete ban. They also called its voter ID provision a poison pill.
The Senate was preparing to leave Washington, the reporter said, possibly that evening. Both parties now take these votes home to the midterms.