Sponsor
Byron Donalds
Representative · R-FL
Representative · R-FL
The bill improves resilience and gives clearer rules for large data centers—reducing outage risk for critical services—but does so in ways that could sharply raise costs, favor large firms, risk service disruptions during fast compliance, create environmental harms, and reduce ordinary Congressional oversight.
Customers of large data centers (e.g., banks, cloud customers) and the services they rely on will face fewer outages because the bill pushes operators toward on-site resilience (less dependence on the public grid, captive generators, local water storage) improving continuity for critical services.
Owners and operators of large data centers (≥5 MW) gain clearer rules that distinguish new vs. existing facilities, improving legal certainty for investment, planning, and compliance decisions.
A Presidential proclamation tied to the bill takes immediate legal effect, making any protections or limits in that proclamation enforceable for ratepayers right away.
Customers and tenants of data centers (businesses and taxpayers) will likely face substantially higher costs because operators may need expensive retrofits or to build on-site power and water systems, raising prices for cloud and hosted services.
Many existing data centers could be forced to close or stop operating because a rapid 180-day compliance timeline may be infeasible, risking disrupted services, lost jobs, and local economic harm.
Smaller companies, nonprofits, and new entrants will struggle to compete because the high capital cost of self-sufficient infrastructure favors large operators, concentrating data services among the biggest firms.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Requires covered data centers (≥5 MW) to use only on-site/non-grid electricity and non-public water for all uses, effective 180 days after enactment, and makes a Presidential proclamation legally binding.
Official title: To require that new and existing data centers use off-grid power and water supplies, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 20, 2026 by Byron Donalds · Last progress July 20, 2026
Prohibits covered data centers from connecting to or obtaining electricity or water from the public grid or public water systems beginning 180 days after enactment, requiring all energy (including backup) to come from on-site or captive generation or other non-grid sources and all water (including backup) from on-site or non-public sources. It also gives statutory force to a prior Presidential proclamation titled "Ratepayer Protection Pledge." The bill defines which facilities are covered (private entities owning or planning a data center with at least 5 megawatts of power demand) and distinguishes existing versus new data centers based on whether they are operational at enactment. No implementation, compliance, funding, or enforcement mechanisms are specified in the text provided.