Bill requires reports on data center water, power, and pollution.
S. 5640 — Data Center Transparency Act of 2026 · Filed by Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 30, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
The EPA must report every three months on data centers. The reports cover water use, water reuse, and effects on local water systems. The reports also cover greenhouse gas emissions and air quality. The Energy Information Administration must report twice a year on data center power use by state. The reports cover power use, grid buildout, and effects on household power bills. The bill makes no new rules for data centers.
Who it affects
Citizens will get public reports on how data centers affect water systems, power costs, and air. The reports give people facts they do not have now.
One thing to notice
The bill only requires reports. It does not ban data centers or limit their water or power use.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Sep 30, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- EPA — The federal agency that protects air and water.
- greenhouse gas emissions — Gases released into the air that trap heat and warm the planet.
- Energy Information Administration — The federal agency that collects facts about power use in the United States.
- data centers — Large buildings full of computers that store and process information for the internet.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,865 characters) on Oct 8, 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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