A concurrent resolution expressing the sense of Congress that the Ratepayer Protection Pledge announced on March 4, 2026, reflects sound national policy to protect ratepayers in the United States, promote electricity affordability, and ensure that all people of the United States, including households, small businesses, schools, hospitals, and farms, have access to reliable and affordable energy as artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure expands across the United States.

Rick Scott

Republican · FL · Senator

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

• Roger Marshall (R-KS)Original· 2026-03-25

Referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. (text: CR S1618-1619)

2026-03-25

Source: Congress.gov

Congress is expressing support for a pledge to protect electricity customers from rate increases as artificial intelligence and data centers expand across the country, with the goal of keeping energy affordable for households, small businesses, schools, hospitals, and farms. The resolution reflects lawmakers' concern that the growing power demands of AI and data centers could drive up electricity costs for everyday consumers. This is a non-binding statement of congressional intent rather than a law that would directly regulate rates or companies.

AI-assisted summary generated from the official bill metadata (title, subjects, actions) sourced from Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed. Always verify against the official text linked below.

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [S. Con. Res. 30 Introduced in Senate (IS)] <DOC> 119th CONGRESS 2d Session S. CON. RES. 30 Expressing the sense of Congress that the Ratepayer Protection Pledge announced on March 4, 2026, reflects sound national policy to protect ratepayers in the United States, promote electricity affordability, and ensure that all people of the United States, including households, small businesses, schools, hospitals, and farms, have access to reliable and affordable energy as artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure expands across the United States. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES March 25, 2026 Mr. Scott of Florida (for himself and Mr. Marshall) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources _______________________________________________________________________ CONCURRENT RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of Congress that the Ratepayer Protection Pledge announced on March 4, 2026, reflects sound national policy to protect ratepayers in the United States, promote electricity affordability, and ensure that all people of the United States, including households, small businesses, schools, hospitals, and farms, have access to reliable and affordable energy as artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure expands across the United States. Whereas data centers consumed approximately 183 terawatt-hours of electricity in the United States in 2024, which is more than 4 percent of total national electricity consumption in the United States; Whereas the Department of Energy projects that the share of total national electricity consumption in the United States that is consumed by data centers could reach up to 12 percent by 2028 as artificial intelligence workloads require continuously operating, high power density computing infrastructure at unprecedented scale; Whereas, under the traditional utility regulatory model, the costs of building, upgrading, and maintaining the transmission and distribution infrastructure required to service new large industrial loads are socialized across all ratepayers through rate proceedings, meaning that households and small businesses in the United States effectively subsidize the electricity infrastructure of some of the most highly capitalized companies in history; Whereas, because data centers cluster geographically rather than diffuse evenly across the electric grid, the impact of data centers on local electricity rates is acute and uneven; and Whereas, on March 4, 2026, Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI, Oracle, and xAI signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge at the White House, committing to negotiate separate rate structures with utilities and State governments wherever those signatories build data centers and to pay those rates for generation and delivery infrastructure whether or not the signatories consume the electricity, establishing a pay-whether- used obligation that, alongside protecting ratepayers from infrastructure cost-shifting, creates an incentive for the signatories to make their backup generation resources available to grid operators during scarcity events, thereby enhancing reliability for all people of the United States: Now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate (the House of Representatives concurring), That-- (1) it is the Sense of Congress that-- (A) the Ratepayer Protection Pledge announced on March 4, 2026, reflects sound national policy founded on the principle that the people of the United States should not be required to foot the bill for private data center energy and infrastructure costs; (B) the artificial intelligence data center boom in the United States should be leveraged to address electricity affordability and benefit all households and businesses in the United States; and (C) relevant Federal agencies, including the Department of Energy and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, should support and facilitate the implementation of the commitments made in the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, including by working with private companies to expedite the permitting and interconnection of new energy generation resources; and (2) Congress…

encourages additional artificial intelligence companies, hyperscalers, data center operators, and technology firms that have not yet signed the Ratepayer Protection Pledge to voluntarily adopt equivalent commitments without delay. <all>

• S4663A bill to appropriate sums for the Secretary of Agriculture to provide block grants to States for losses of revenue as a consequence of certain freezes or cold weather conditions.
  Referred to Committee · 2026-06-02
• SRES749A resolution designating May 2026 as "Older Americans Month".
  Introduced · 2026-05-21
• S4601Chinese CBDC Prohibition Act of 2026
  Referred to Committee · 2026-05-20
• S4586Blocking CCP Spy Tech Act of 2026
  Referred to Committee · 2026-05-20