{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4269", "Larsen Fights for Guardrails on Data Centers", "2026-09-23", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "House", "WA", "Rick Larsen", "L000560", "larsen.house.gov", "larsen", "https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "U.S. Representative Rick Larsen (WA-02) joined 110 House Democrats in a letter to tech industry leaders last Friday demanding that all data center construction follow strict guardrails to protect consumers from electricity and water price hikes.\n\n\u201cData center projects and the energy systems and infrastructure that support them must be built and operated responsibly with a commitment to high-quality construction, good jobs, strong environmental stewardship, and strong partnerships with the communities they serve,\u201d wrote the Members.\n\nThe lawmakers stated that they would oppose new data center construction projects that failed to incorporate strong labor standards, negotiate community benefits agreements with local leaders, and mitigate impacts on local air quality, drinking water and utilities costs for residents.\n\n\u201cAt a time when the nation's power grid, roads, bridges, schools, and other public infrastructure require significant investment, data center development must strengthen rather than strain, these systems,\u201d the Members continued. \u201cDevelopers must also invest responsibly in grid infrastructure, including new generation and grid upgrades, to protect ratepayers from bearing the costs of data center projects' energy needs.\u201d\n\nThe full text of the letter to tech industry leaders can be read here.\n\nLarsen Holds Data Centers Accountable\n\nLast week, Rep. Larsen voted for legislation to protect families from higher electricity bills because of data centers in their communities (the Ratepayers Protection Act). Rep. Larsen also cosponsors the Big Ugly Tax Breaks for Data Centers Act to roll back tax breaks for large AI data centers in Republicans\u2019 Big Ugly Law.\n\nRep. Larsen supports tough, upfront restrictions on data centers:\n\nNo high electric bills for local families and small businesses;\n\nNo federal tax breaks;\n\nNo construction without community approval and union labor;\n\nData centers must pay their fair share to connect to and use the grid; and\n\nData centers must use closed loop water systems.\n\nA one-pager on Rep. Larsen\u2019s work to hold data centers accountable can be found here.", 1, "2026-09-24T09:44:48Z", "2026-09-24T09:45:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://larsen.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=4269"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4375918544828892, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}