Data centers must pay full cost of their own power lines.
H.R. 10809 — Make Data Centers Pay Act · Filed by Eugene Vindman (D-VA) · Introduced Oct 13, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill changes federal power rules. Data centers using 20 or more megawatts must pay the full cost of power lines built for them. Right now those costs spread to regular customers. The bill stops that. Data centers must put money down upfront. They must keep paying if they leave early.
Who it affects
Families and small businesses that buy electricity benefit. They will not pay for power lines built only for data centers. Data centers must pay more for power.
One thing to notice
Data centers approved before this bill passes do not follow the new rules. Only new data centers must pay the full cost.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Oct 13, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 13, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- data centers — Big buildings full of computers that store and process information for companies.
- megawatts — A measure of how much electricity something uses. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,508 characters) on Oct 15, 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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