Bill makes data centers pay grid costs and hire union workers
H.R. 10579 — Energy Cost Fairness and Reliability Act of 2026 · Filed by Dave Min (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 24, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The bill tells the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to make new rules. Data centers must pay all costs to study and upgrade the grid. They must be able to use less power when asked. Data centers must build their own power plants or buy power elsewhere. The bill gives priority to data centers that hire union workers. It also prioritizes those that sign labor deals.
Who it affects
Regular people benefit because data centers will pay their own grid costs. Data center companies will face higher costs from union labor rules. The power grid can reduce data center power use during peak times.
One thing to notice
The bill requires data centers to follow labor rules and pay full grid costs. This may make it slower to build new data centers.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 24, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 24, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Science, Space, and…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — The federal agency that makes rules for power plants and the grid.
- union workers — Workers who belong to a group that negotiates pay and work rules.
- labor deals — Agreements between a company and workers about pay and work rules.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (28,757 characters) on Sep 28, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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