Congress orders a study on how data centers harm the environment.
H.R. 9629 — Protecting Communities from Data Center Impacts Act of 2026 · Filed by Greg Landsman (D-OH) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jul 9, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the EPA to hire the National Academies. The National Academies will study data centers. The study will look at noise, air pollution, water use, carbon emissions, and electronic waste. The National Academies must report to Congress within 180 days. The bill does not make any new rules.
Who it affects
The study itself does not directly help or hurt people now. The National Academies will do the work. Congress might later use the study to make new rules.
One thing to notice
The bill asks for facts but does not say what Congress must do next. The bill does not say who will pay for the study.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Jul 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 9, 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
- EPA — The Environmental Protection Agency, the government office that protects air, water, and land.
- National Academies — A group of experts that studies big problems and gives advice to Congress.
- carbon emissions — Gases released when fuel is burned, which warm the Earth.
- electronic waste — Old computers, servers, and other broken electronics that must be thrown away.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,113 characters) on Jul 10, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 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 2026-09-23.
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