Rep. Suhas Subramanyam introduced a four-bill federal legislative package aimed at slowing runaway data center growth across the country and forcing tech companies, not homeowners, to pay for the infrastructure their facilities demand. The package comes as Loudoun County — ground zero for the data center boom — wrestles with its own effort to close loopholes that have let more than 20 pending projects skip public hearings.
The four bills are the Responsible Data Center Siting Act, the Data Center Fair Share Act, the Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act, and the Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act, according to The Hans India. Subramanyam has proposed federal rules governing where data centers are built and who pays for the infrastructure that supports them, and he has said data center growth has moved too quickly and without enough oversight, according to FOX 5 DC. His proposal calls for greater transparency about data center energy and water use, and it would require the massive facilities to cover the full cost of power-grid upgrades and other infrastructure improvements needed to sustain their operations, per the same report.
Highway Funds as Leverage Over States
The most aggressive piece of the package, the Data Center Fair Share Act, would require states to enact special utility tariffs on large electricity users so that data centers pay the full cost of grid upgrades. States that decline to adopt those tariffs risk losing federal highway funds, The Hans India reports. It's a blunt enforcement mechanism, and one that lands squarely in the middle of a fight already playing out in Northern Virginia, where high-voltage power line construction has drawn backlash over whether residents or tech companies should be footing the bill.
Subramanyam has warned that local and state leaders may be growing too reliant on data center revenue, and he has said communities such as Loudoun County have already done more than their fair share, per FOX 5 DC. The plan he's pushing examines ways to keep data centers and their high-voltage transmission lines away from homes, schools, and historic parks, the outlet reports. That tension is not abstract in Loudoun County: industry leaders say data centers are expected to generate about $1.2 billion in tax revenue for the county this year, accounting for nearly 40 percent of its budget, according to FOX 5 DC. The Data Center Coalition has said that revenue eases the tax burden on homeowners and helps fund schools and public safety, the outlet notes.
Measurement Standards Already Cleared a Committee
Two of the four bills build on groundwork Subramanyam laid earlier this year. His Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act, H.R. 9372, passed the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee in June by a 34–1 vote, directing the National Institute of Standards and Technology to establish technical standards for measuring how much power and water data centers actually consume, according to a press release from Subramanyam's office. That bipartisan vote suggests at least part of his framework already has traction on Capitol Hill.
The Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act, which Subramanyam introduced in May, directs federal agencies to develop a security strategy protecting local communities and energy grids near data centers from potential physical or cyber threats posed by foreign or domestic adversaries, per another press release from his office. Northern Virginia hosts a massive share of the world's digital and cloud infrastructure, making the security of that infrastructure a growing federal concern.
Loudoun County Fights Its Own Grandfathering Fight
Subramanyam's federal push lands alongside a parallel battle at the county level. Loudoun County officials are considering a pause on new data center development and potential changes to grandfathering policies, per FOX 5 DC. In September, Loudoun County Supervisors Juli Briskman and Laura TeKrony planned to introduce legislation at the board's Sept. 1 meeting to terminate a 2025 resolution that had allowed more than 20 pending data center applications to move through administrative approvals without public hearings, according to WUSA9.
That grandfathering fight traces back to March 2025, when Loudoun County updated its comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance to end by-right data center development for new proposals, reclassifying the facilities as a special exception requiring public review and Board of Supervisors approval, according to Ashburn Patch. That update stopped automatic approvals for new filings, but it also created the grandfathering exception now under fire for the projects already in the pipeline.
The Money Behind the Debate
Hoodline previously reported on Sen. Mark Warner's own federal framework targeting data centers, and on a separate fight over water usage claims. The stakes for Virginia's economy are substantial either way. A December 2024 report from Virginia's Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission found the data center industry supports 74,000 jobs statewide and generates $9.1 billion in state GDP, while saving companies $928.6 million through the state's sales tax exemption in fiscal year 2023 alone, per the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. That same report noted that while data centers currently pay full direct energy service rates, unconstrained growth would significantly increase regional system costs.
The power demand is already reshaping Virginia's grid, and Northern Virginia and Loudoun County are major data-center markets. Dominion's forecasted system fuel expense has climbed to $4.35 billion through June 2027, an 88 percent increase over 2021 levels, as the utility is forced to buy higher-cost electricity on wholesale markets to keep pace with demand, Reuters reported.
New Rate Class Aims to Shield Homeowners
State regulators have already taken one step meant to insulate residential customers from those rising costs. Virginia approved a specialized rate class, GS-5, for Dominion Energy targeting high-density energy users, according to The Richmonder. The GS-5 class is intended to segregate large-load customer costs from other customers' bills.
Whether Subramanyam's federal package can move through a divided Congress remains to be seen, but its introduction marks one of the first multi-pronged attempts to standardize data center growth nationally rather than leaving the fight to county boards and state regulators alone. For now, Loudoun County remains the epicenter of that fight, caught between the tax windfall data centers provide and the transmission lines, water demands, and rising power bills that come with hosting the world's largest concentration of server farms.
