Senator Jon Husted, Republican of Ohio, speaks during a roundtable discussion on a taxpayer protection pledge in the Indian Treaty Room of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House in Washington, March 4, 2026.
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Senate Democrats on Wednesday rejected two bills aimed at addressing data center affordability concerns and limiting the ability of members of Congress to make profits in the stock market while in office, arguing that both were watered-down proposals.
The data center bill, called the Ratepayer Protection Act, failed by a vote of 57 to 43. A second bill, known as the Stop Insider Trading Act, which also includes a controversial voter ID provision, was defeated by a vote of 53 to 47, along party lines. Each bill needed 60 votes to overcome the Senate filibuster.
Republicans will likely use those votes as fuel for their election campaign this fall, as the Republican Party seeks to hold slim majorities in both chambers despite President Donald Trump’s declining approval ratings and lingering concerns about affordability. The Senate is expected to recess as early as Wednesday, as lawmakers seeking re-election return to their home states to campaign ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
“ALL Senate Democrats just joined 94% of House Democrats in voting AGAINST banning stock trading in Congress,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., told X immediately after the vote. The bill, he said, provides “the accountability that the American people demand.” But all the Democrats stopped it from becoming law.”
The Taxpayer Protection Act, passed by the House of Representatives by a vote of 417-3 earlier this month, would establish a regulatory framework that states could consider adopting to require large artificial intelligence data centers to cover their own energy costs, rather than passing them on to customers.
But Democrats spoke out against this measure. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called the proposal a “toothless messaging bill” in a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday.
“The bill is a fraud. I can sum up the shortcomings of the Republican data center bill in one word: optional,” Schumer said.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who has called for a national moratorium on data centers until developers can demonstrate they will cover the full cost of building and operating them, called the legislation “stupid nonsense.”
“Give us something substantial and we’ll vote on it,” Warren said before the vote.
Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, cited similar concerns when he blocked the bill earlier this month after Sen. Jon Husted, Republican of Ohio, sought unanimous consent for speedy passage.
Husted is in a reelection race against former Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown, according to The Cook Political Report with Amy Walter. Brown accused his opponent of helping bring data centers to the state when he was lieutenant governor.
Husted and other Republicans could benefit from a messaging victory on the data center front, which in recent months has become a powerful campaign issue as opponents seek stricter guardrails for developers.
Meanwhile, the Congressional Securities Trading Bill, passed by the House of Representatives in July by a vote of 232 to 198, would prohibit sitting members of Congress from purchasing individual stocks. But it would not require members to divest their existing portfolios, a sticking point for some Democrats who advocate a stricter trade ban.
Republicans added a controversial voter ID provision to the measure, which Democrats largely oppose.
Schumer also criticized the stock trading proposal Tuesday, calling it a “theatrical farce” and the voter ID provision a “poison pill.”
And Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said the Republican proposal was a half-measure.
“It’s obviously a sign that they’re not taking the issue of insider trading seriously. If you wanted to get a stock ban, you would put a stock ban on the ground,” Kaine said Wednesday.
Husted, in a message to X on Tuesday, called both proposals “common-sense, bipartisan bills.”
“Reducing energy costs, requiring a photo ID to vote, and banning stock trading for members of Congress could be bipartisan victories,” Husted wrote. “Senate Democrats are the only ones standing in the way of doing what the American people have asked us to do.”
— Irit Skulnik contributed to this story.
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