{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-senate-floor-warner-calls-for-data-center-guardrails-on-water-energy-and-transparency/", "On Senate Floor, Warner Calls for Data Center Guardrails on Water, Energy, and Transparency", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "VA", "Mark R. Warner", "W000805", "www.warner.senate.gov", "warner", "https://www.warner.senate.gov/news/press-releases/", "scraper", "BROADCAST-QUALITY VIDEO IS AVAILABLE HERE\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 On the floor of the United States Senate today, Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) called on Congress to enact meaningful protections for communities facing the rapid expansion of data centers, arguing that legislation must include enforceable requirements on energy costs, water usage, transparency, and community impacts.\n\nThe Senate is expected to vote tomorrow on the Ratepayer Protection Act, which would direct states to consider adopting a standard under which certain large data centers would pay for the infrastructure costs associated with their development. States would have two years to consider the standard and would not be required to adopt it.\n\nWarner argued that the proposal does not go far enough and urged his colleagues to instead consider his Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, which would establish mandatory transparency requirements for large data centers and condition valuable federal tax benefits on developers meeting standards related to energy, water, environmental performance, and community impacts.\n\nIn his speech today, Sen. Warner explained that the Ratepayer Protection Act \u201ccould be a starting point, but here\u2019s what the bill does. It says that states can consider adopting a federal standard that would hold data centers responsible for rising electricity bills, and then they get two years to consider that. Candidly, they could do that today. We\u2019ve already taken some action in Virginia. And what happens if nobody takes up that offer? Anything happen to these data centers? Does anything happen to those communities? Well, nothing.\u201d\n\nWarner continued, \u201cI think we need real legislation on this. We need legislation that actually has some boundaries. This should not be optional. We have seen communities hit by skyrocketing electrical costs. We\u2019ve seen communities where a lot of their water usage has gone up dramatically. We\u2019ve seen these data centers sometimes literally intrude right into neighborhoods.\u201d\n\nWarner\u2019s Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act would require greater public disclosure of data centers\u2019 energy and water consumption, backup power systems, environmental impacts, and other information. It would also condition access to accelerated depreciation tax benefits on developers meeting standards related to energy, water, building efficiency, setbacks, and community transparency.\n\n\u201cWe need to make sure we\u2019ve got accurate information about power usage, water usage, setbacks, backup power, get rid of non-disclosure agreements,\u201d said Sen. Warner. \u201cMy legislation would require, not invite, but require that information to come forward and put a penalty in place.\u201d\n\nWarner also emphasized that the legislation would use existing federal tax incentives to encourage better behavior from developers rather than simply relying on voluntary commitments.\n\n\u201cIf you\u2019re going to do all that and not meet those standards, then you shouldn\u2019t get bonus depreciation,\u201d Sen. Warner said. \u201cWe have given these hyperscalers, we\u2019ve given these data center builders, enormous tax benefits and bonus depreciation, where they can write off the cost of these very expensive centers, all in the first year. I don\u2019t want to take that away. I\u2019m not raising anybody\u2019s taxes. But I\u2019m saying, you shouldn\u2019t get all the benefits up front if you don\u2019t provide to the community some guarantees about water, power, setbacks, community involvement.\u201d\n\n\u201cUnless we put some consequences, I think we are going to completely miss the boat,\u201d he continued.\n\nWarner contrasted that approach with the legislation before the Senate, rejecting the argument that Congress should accept a limited measure now and address the remaining issues later.\n\n\u201cI know people will say, and my colleagues may say, well, why don\u2019t you take half a loaf?\u201d said Warner. \u201cBut the underlying bill isn\u2019t half a loaf. It\u2019s the promise of maybe one slice of that bread two years down from now.\u201d\n\nSen. Warner said, \u201cI hope that I can encourage my colleagues to join me in passing the Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, one that I\u2019ve already socialized with industry, one that would put some mandatory requirements, but also put some real teeth in this very important issue.\u201d\n\nSen. Warner\u2019s full remarks are below:\n\nI\u2019ve spent the last couple of years trying to learn as much as I can about artificial intelligence and its upside and still long AI in terms of innovational bring. I think there are some real challenges.\n\nI have to acknowledge I did witness something this afternoon something that was a little bit surreal. The president had brought together some leaders of the AI Industry and in a closed, quiet room, I guess they reached some level of moral agreement, whatever that means, that they\u2019re going to try to make sure things are safe. As a matter of fact, they even went so far as to say all of the president\u2019s critique about concerns about AI being a hoax or about data centers not being a problem are suddenly being solved because the president has renamed AI, SI, superintelligence. I didn\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry to think that the greatest innovation in my lifetime \u2014 and I was in the tech business before I came to politics \u2014 that it\u2019ll be bigger than my old industry, wireless, or bigger than cloud computing. And with all the up sides, there are down sides and it\u2019s suddenly going to be solved by a name change of but that\u2019s the status of our political debate.\n\nEarlier today I came down with two of my democratic colleagues and said as we get all of these warnings from industry, form business that use AI tools, from national security, wouldn\u2019t it be a good idea to put in some basic safety precautions in place. We stripped away all of the other provisions and just have a safety board here. I know the presiding officer has had an interest in this topic. I\u2019ve yet to talk to a member that doesn\u2019t think some level of safety with this enormous innovation is appropriate. Well, that\u2019s not going to take place before we finish before the elections.\n\nSo I\u2019m back again this afternoon to talk about another piece of the AI debate that certainly needs congressional action. And that is the whole question about how we build out and ensure consumers don\u2019t get stuck with the buildout of data centers. This is something I know a little bit about. Virginia is the capital of data centers in our country, and there is enormous concern from neighbors, from communities, many of the kind of the worst examples of data centers were built 15 or 20 years, but the industry has moved forward. I give credit there. But the angst about data centers, I think is also reflective of the angst about AI is not going away, no matter what the president wants to say. I\u2019d urge him to travel anywhere across Virginia, for that matter, anywhere across Kansas or Texas or anywhere else where these data centers are being proposed because communities actually want to have a say in what happens in their backyard, what happens with their utility rates, what happens with their water usage, what happens with local communities signing nondisclosure agreements, so the community doesn\u2019t even know what they\u2019re getting until after the deal is cooked.\n\nI guess tomorrow the Senate will turn to focus on the so-called Ratepayer Protection Act, which is supposed to answer all of these concerns about cost, about community.\n\nThe challenge is, and it could be a starting point, but here\u2019s what the bill does. It says that states can consider adopting a federal standard that would hold data centers responsible for rising electricity bills, and then they get two years to consider that. Candidly, they could do that today. We\u2019ve already taken some action in Virginia. And what happens if nobody takes up that offer? Anything happen to these data centers? Does anything happen to those communities? Well, nothing.\n\nI think we need real legislation on this. We need legislation that actually has some boundaries. This should not be optional. We have seen communities hit by skyrocketing electrical costs. We\u2019ve seen communities where a lot of their water usage has gone up dramatically, and they\u2019re concerned, concerned about the water table. We\u2019ve seen these data centers sometimes literally intrude right into neighborhoods.\n\nI\u2019ve heard the pushback from communities all across our Commonwealth. Matter of fact, even the community that\u2019s got the most, that has received the most economic benefits, they recently, Loudoun County, they recently put a pause. Now, I don\u2019t think we can pause. I don\u2019t think we can put the genie back in the bottle, but I would urge the Senate not to take this flim flam do nothing bill, but actually take a look at my Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, which I didn\u2019t dream up in the last couple of days, but put forward much earlier this summer on an issue that I\u2019ve been working on for a couple of years. What we can\u2019t rely on is simply the goodwill of these hyperscalers and these companies. Some are well intentioned, some are not.\n\nWe need to make sure we\u2019ve got accurate information about power usage, water usage, setbacks, backup power, get rid of non-disclosure agreements. My legislation would require, not invite, but require that information to come forward and put a penalty in place, at a relatively small amount, if they don\u2019t submit that. But the real bite, and what\u2019s going to really change this behavior and, frankly, earn back some of the community\u2019s trust if there\u2019s a tool. Frankly, I have had ongoing discussions with most of the hyperscalers who are building out these data centers, who, frankly, think my piece of legislation makes some sense.\n\nThe second half of my legislation would say, if you don\u2019t meet LEED Gold or LEED Platinum standards, which are already established. If you don\u2019t show how you\u2019re bringing your own power. You don\u2019t have criteria on water usage, that\u2019s gotten better because more of these data centers have circulatory systems. If you don\u2019t have setbacks from neighborhoods. If you use non-disclosure agreements. What it would say is, well, if you\u2019re going to do all that and not meet those standards, then you shouldn\u2019t get bonus depreciation. I\u2019m not going to raise anybody\u2019s taxes. But we have given these hyperscalers, we\u2019ve given these data center builders, enormous tax benefits and bonus depreciation, where they can write off the cost of these very expensive centers, all in the first year. I don\u2019t want to take that away. I\u2019m not raising anybody\u2019s taxes. But I\u2019m saying, you shouldn\u2019t get all the benefits up front if you don\u2019t provide to the community some guarantees about water, power, setbacks, community involvement. If a community then wants to go or a hyperscaler wants to come in and say, we\u2019ll help provide. I think, in Louisiana, some additional benefits for your schools have at it. You\u2019ve got to set a federal baseline, so the communities don\u2019t feel that they\u2019re getting snookered. And the ability to make sure we don\u2019t give away these tax benefits without that minimum guarantee I think, has a lot of benefit. And just today, we learned that Microsoft saved about $12 billion in taxes on using accelerated depreciation or bonus depreciation. Meta saved about 16 billion, 15.9 billion, from using bonus depreciation. And I\u2019ve reached out to these companies. They understand the game has changed. They have to be more engaged. And I think many of the hyperscalers would meet these new standards.\n\nBut unless we put some consequences I think we are going to completely miss the boat.\n\nIt\u2019s kind of like saying, even though the AI companies themselves are saying, \u2018gosh, we\u2019re really worried about safety,\u2019 none of the responsible ones realize they can simply say, \u2018just trust us.\u2019 The idea that these largest companies in the world, and I know the CEOs of most of them, I think there are many of them are good people, but the idea, after we\u2019ve all experienced some of the ups and downs of social media, we\u2019re going to turn the same power over to this same group of CEOs and say, \u2018we\u2019re going to trust you to figure this all out on your own, without any public input.\u2019 I keep thinking back, would I ever climb on an airplane that hadn\u2019t had a safety inspection? But that\u2019s what we\u2019re thinking about on overall AI safety and these models being released.\n\nBut at least tomorrow, if the Senate takes up this Ratepayer Protection Act, I\u2019m not sure what I\u2019m going to do on the vote tomorrow, but I would say that the Ratepayer Protection Act is a fig leaf. And I know people will say, and my colleagues may say, well, why don\u2019t you take half a loaf? You know, I\u2019m pretty involved in every bipartisan action. You know, take half a loaf and we keep working on it. But the underlying bill isn\u2019t half a loaf. It\u2019s the promise of maybe one slice of that bread two years down from now.\n\nThe anger in my state and in every state across the country on this issue is not going to wait two years to have some kind of no penalty, but optional review where, frankly, the pitchforks are out already.\n\nI hope that I can encourage my colleagues to join me in passing the Data Center Tax Accountability and Disclosure Act, one that I\u2019ve already socialized with industry, one that would put some mandatory requirements, but also put some real teeth in this very important issue.\n\nBut, these issues are not going to disappear and simply punting or saying to industry, \u2018trust us,\u2019 and I come from the tech industry, is not going to satisfy the concerns of the American people.\n\nThe sooner we get to work on serious business, the sooner we can make sure that we benefit from all of this AI innovation that I do think lies in wait, because if we have a mistake, or if we have a challenge and something happens, all of this innovation could go away because the American people are already enormously suspect about AI. They are already enormously concerned at a 90-10 ratio about data centers.\n\nIt is time for us to act and not simply punt.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "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://www.warner.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/on-senate-floor-warner-calls-for-data-center-guardrails-on-water-energy-and-transparency/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.4279099199920893, "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"}