Messaging On Data Centers Is Hard. This Committee Offers A Safe Space.

As House Republicans fight behind closed doors about how to respond to the backlash against data centers, one committee is pushing forward on the issue publicly.

The House Energy and Commerce Committee has found itself at the forefront of the Capitol Hill data center debate, clearing the Ratepayer Protection Act — which sets frameworks to compel data centers to cover increased energy costs — in a unanimous vote this summer. And as data center discord swirled among House Republicans this week, the committee held another hearing on a bill to have data centers pay for their water use and system upgrades.

Committee Chair Brett Guthrie (R-Ky.) told POLITICO in a sit-down interview this week that, given the committee’s jurisdiction, he’s keen to jump on the opportunity to push legislation that could ease voter concerns about the energy and water needs of AI data centers.

“When people tell me they’re concerned, I say I would be concerned too,” Guthrie said of data centers.

Guthrie’s power to get his bills passed is limited — leadership schedules the floor votes — so his committee has become a place for members of both parties to work on their messaging and try to make some progress around the issue.

There are dozens of bills in the House and Senate related to data centers, but the Energy and Commerce Committee set itself apart when Guthrie fast-tracked the Ratepayer Protection Act from Rep. Gabe Evans (R-Colo.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), in July. That bill became the first major bipartisan data center proposal to clear a congressional committee.

Now, Guthrie is negotiating for a floor vote on the bill ahead of the November midterm elections — a prospect that is far from assured, with the House announcing it would reconvene for just one more week in September, and leadership noncommittal on data center action.

In the meantime, he convened another hearing Thursday to discuss draft legislation on data centers’ water use. The meeting also allowed committee members to air grievances and zero in on their messaging on data centers.

Members from both parties asked witnesses Thursday to affirm their various opinions on data centers: whether that meant noting the importance of local decision making on data center siting, or comparing the water use of data centers to that of golf courses.

“We know two things can be true at the same time,” Evans said at the hearing. “We have to have the digital infrastructure to beat communist China ... but we also have to make sure that our communities know that these things are being done responsibly.”

Evans’ messaging was echoed by Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), head of the committee’s environment panel, and Guthrie. It is an increasingly common refrain among Republicans, especially those in vulnerable districts like Evans, as they try to balance data center backlash from constituents with ongoing support for data centers from the likes of President Donald Trump, who said this week that communities that do not want data centers “want to end up being backwards and poor.”

Others, like Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), used the hearing to ask witnesses for evidence of how data centers’ water use has been overstated. That’s another talking point that has been coming up within the administration, with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick saying Wednesday on CNBC that “data centers don’t use water.”

“I think it’s important that we deal in facts,” Pfluger said, before asking: “Is it fair to say that the water use of a data center is highly project and location specific?”

Neil Bradley, the executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, agreed with him.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) spoke to the committee’s leadership on data centers during the hearing Thursday, while simultaneous slamming lawmakers outside of the committee for choosing instead to “mirror [voters’] anger back in order to get your vote” — a seeming jab at those endorsing anti-data center policies in response to constituent concerns.

“This is one of the committees I truly enjoy serving on because we work on things that matter to people’s lives,” Crenshaw said. “It really drives me crazy, honestly, how much of the work that comes out of this committee — bipartisan, substantive, negotiated in good faith — just dies between here and the House floor.”

‘It all has to be addressed’

Despite coming to the committee chairmanship “through the healthcare route,” Guthrie said that when he took the gavel, he wanted to “broaden out” into the tech and energy world. Early hearings were broad, taking a wide look at uses for AI and touching generally on the necessity for data centers and other investments to power American technology.

Things shifted once lawmakers, including Guthrie, started to see debates about data centers at the local level. As local concerns began to escalate into calls for data center moratoriums — including, eventually, from Energy and Commerce ranking member Frank Pallone — Guthrie said he felt the committee had to weigh in.

“If the building block of AI is a data center and there’s a call across the country to put a moratorium on data centers, that means you’re going to lose the advantages in AI. So it all has to be addressed,” he said.

“It’s interesting to be in the middle of this, because new industries don’t come every year,” he added.

Guthrie sees his committee’s key bills — the Ratepayer Protection Act and the draft water legislation — as a way of addressing constituent concerns while still ensuring competition with China and staying in line with White House messaging.

Pallone put it more bluntly in an interview Thursday, saying he thinks that the new water bill and ensuing hearing were a way for Republicans to give “some expression” to their data center dissent. He described committee Republicans as being at odds with broader party leadership, who at this point have not scheduled a floor vote on data center legislation ahead of the midterms, despite some pressure from Republicans in tight midterm races.

“What I believe is that the Republicans are hearing a lot of complaints about data centers and they’re trying to do something,” Pallone said. “But the Republican leadership doesn’t want to bring up anything because they’re so supportive of data centers.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said this week that leaders are “looking at” the Ratepayer Protection Act and “trying to figure out when and how we can process that, but on the data center issue we’ve been very insistent that community responses need to be respected.”

Democrats hone messaging

It is not just Guthrie and fellow Republicans who have found the Energy and Commerce committee a helpful place to test data center messaging. Pallone and fellow Democrats, too, have used hearings to hone their response to the issue.

Pallone used a June subcommittee markup of the Ratepayer Protection Act to call for a nationwide data center moratorium, becoming the most powerful congressional Democrat with jurisdiction over energy and environment issues to do so.

He has since slightly softened his language, saying at recent hearings — including Thursday’s — that a moratorium would be necessary should Congress not take strict regulatory action against data centers.

“We need real, substantial federal guardrails in place to restrict their impact on our air, our water, our power grid, and on our monthly utility bills. If Congress fails to adopt strong federal guidelines, then a federal moratorium on data centers should be put in place,” Pallone said.

Pallone also used his opening remarks on the water bill Thursday to pan committee Republicans for putting forward measures that are “woefully inadequate to address the environmental concerns of data centers.”

Other Democrats, like Rep. Darren Soto (D-Fla.), spoke more positively about the water legislation. Some, like Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.), used the opportunity to plug their own legislation. Menendez said his Data Center Transparency Act would go further in measuring the impacts of data centers on local water sources.

“I urge my colleagues on the other side of the aisle to change course,” he said.

Kelsey Brugger contributed to this report.