The introduction of the National Data Center Plan this week on Capitol Hill by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10) has attracted state and national attention. 

The plan consists of four bills – two filed earlier this year and two filed this week

His bills are part of a broader movement in Congress to advance legislation that addresses public concerns around the development of data center infrastructure in the United States. In the 119th Congress roughly a dozen bills have been introduced thus far.

Rep. Subramanyam’s bundle stands out, however, for the questions it raises about the end goal of this legislative push. 

Is the National Data Center Plan simply carefully crafted guidelines to aid states in siting data centers? Or does it – as well as other introduced bills mentioned above – open the door to regulating the data center industry at the federal level?

The Virginia Free Press (VFP) asked Rep. Subramanyam’s office to weigh in on whether his National Data Center Plan was “a step toward federally regulating the industry.” 

In an emailed response, the congressman replied: “My data center package is geared towards empowering communities and ensuring that data centers are reasonably sited across the country with constituents’ best interest in mind. A national plan at the federal level will give my constituents, Virginians, and the American people a voice, as well as ensure that data centers pay for their fair share.”

What’s in the National Data Center Plan?

Rep. Subramanyam’s response makes clear that his National Data Center Plan “at the federal level” would give people “a voice.” Less clear is precisely how that might play out. 

The four introduced bills that make up his plan offer some insights. 

The National Data Center Plan casts a wide net. The bills are broadly focused on where data centers are built, who pays for the power to operate them, how to measure their energy and water use, and how to protect them. 

Depending on how the bills would be interpreted should they become law, some may open the door to an increased federal role in data center siting and operations. Such a change would be significant, as data center siting decisions in Virginia are the province of the localities they rise in. (West Virginia, in a bid to attract more data centers, has recently ended local control in many data center decisions.) 

Here’s an overview of what the bills themselves say:

• HR 10321: Responsible Data Center Siting Act of 2026 – This bill would charge the Secretary of Energy to establish best practices for siting data centers. Among considerations to be built into these best practices are the impact on the electricity grid and transmission lines, impacts on water, impacts on surrounding environment, and impacts on communities. The practices are to be published on the Department of Energy’s website and updated every two years. 
• HR 10322: Data Center Fair Share Act – This bill would alter the “Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish Federal standards relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and to withhold highway funds from States that do not implement such standards, and for other purposes.”
• HR 9372: Data Infrastructure Energy Measurement and Standards Act – This bill would require the Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology to conduct a research program that develops “best practices, guidelines, definitions, methodologies, and procedures for measuring and reporting energy and water use by data centers and the workloads of such centers.”
• HR 8711: Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction Act – This bill would charge the Secretary of Homeland Security with identifying “data centers that should be treated as critical infrastructure,” and present to Congress a plan to “defend data centers described in this subsection from external breaches from malefactors and … protect communities and other residential areas.”

Damian Pitt is a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University and told VFP that while he couldn’t speculate on Rep. Subramanyam’s “intentions from a political standpoint,” Pitt said he is confident that the congressman “has been hearing from his constituents that are concerned about the impacts of data centers in their communities, and he may believe that more regulatory oversight of that industry would be appropriate.”

However, he also said that the “Responsible Data Center Siting bill falls short of introducing regulatory oversight. 

“The act as written stops well short of that, and simply directs the US Department of Energy to establish a set of national best practices for the siting of data centers. Any applicable state or local permit would still be required. Existing federal regulations that already apply to data centers, such as under the Clean Air Act, would still be enforced as well.”

While Pitt is correct in that the “Responsible Data Center Siting bill” requires only a set of guidelines to be produced, the remaining three bills could potentially have teeth that lead to federal oversight of how data centers are constructed, reported out, and protected.

The  Data Center Fair Share bill, for example, provides a provision to strip states of highway funds if states fail to comply with guidelines on assigning costs for energy upgrades. And the Data Infrastructure Risk Reduction bill could be read to suggest that Homeland Security, not the companies that run the data centers, could become responsible for defending the facilities. 

Moving toward Regulation?

The chances of Rep. Subramanyam’s, or the other bills listed above, becoming law are small right now according to the prognoses published by govtrack.us. 

“No national  bill,”  Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Mary Washington Stephen Farnsworth told the Virginia Free Press, “seems likely to emerge from this process. Congress agrees on almost nothing these days. This initiative seems more like position taking than getting something passed in the current political environment, marked as it is by immense gridlock.”

But what type of “position taking” is behind the bills? 

Ahead of the coming midterm elections, Rep. Subramanyam stands to gain by building on voter anger in his district, which includes parts of Loudoun and Prince William counties, over data center construction. 

“Successful politicians often try to see where the voters are going and try to get out in front of mass movements like the current public concerns about data centers,” Farnsworth told VFP. “This proposed legislative initiative should further help a Democrat in a district with lines that are already favorable to that party.”

Beyond the potential benefits in the forthcoming election, the National Data Center Plan appears to dovetail in some ways with a September 3 report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) titled “Congressional Authority to Regulate Data Centers.”

In an opinion piece about that report, the Legis 1 editorial team identified “three main constitutional hooks Congress could use” to regulate the data center industry: “the Commerce Clause, the Taxing Power, and the Spending Power.” 

The Commerce Clause is what Rep. Subramanyam’s Responsible Data Center Siting Act could potentially be testing. 

Legis 1 says of the CRS report that “Under the Commerce Clause, Congress could directly regulate data center design, siting, construction, and operation.” This is because lower courts have routinely deemed the internet is “both an instrumentality and a channel of interstate commerce.” 

More importantly, it concludes, “No court has directly addressed whether data centers fall within Commerce Clause categories, leaving that legal pathway untested.”

Siting sits at the center of Rep. Subramanyam’s Responsible Data Center Siting bill.

Will the Anger Pass?

Curry Roberts, the former Virginia State Secretary of Economic Development (now Commerce and Trade), sees in the current legislative push a lot of anger. 

“We’re in a convergence,” he told VFP. A range of factors have combined to inflame public outcry against data centers. He notes that data centers are being pushed by President Donald Trump who is broadly unpopular. At the same time, utility bills – due in part, but not exclusively, to data centers – are rising, fear of AI is surging, and worries over Flock cameras are climbing. 

That outcry has been directed toward one industry. The question is, he asks, is will that anger pass?

That answer likely won’t come until after the midterms. 

Should Democrats win both the House and the Senate, the stage will be set in the 120th Congress to aggressively push legislation like the National Data Center Plan. Under that scenario, the outrage currently on display may continue into 2027.

Should Democrats win one house but not the other, public outcry may continue, but Congress will not be in a position to actively push for this legislation. 

Whether the idea federal data center regulation gains legs, in short, may well be at stake this November.