Yesterday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) spoke on the House floor about the Ratepayer Protection Act and the importance of local communities, not the federal government, deciding whether to embrace data centers. Leader Scalise highlighted examples in Louisiana and Virginia where AI infrastructure has generated significant economic benefit to the community.
  

Highlights from Leader Scalise’s remarks:

On data centers being a local decision: 

“As we're advancing in technology, we've got to do it the right way, Mr. Speaker. In a smart and thoughtful way. And if you look at communities that have embraced data centers, some communities said, it's not for me. And that's a choice communities make. The federal government is not the one making that decision.”

On ensuring data centers aren’t increasing electricity costs:

“What we've always said, and what President Trump took the leadership in doing, is meeting with all of the big tech companies that are building these massive data centers and said, just make sure as you're making these big investments in communities, you won't add to the cost of a local community's ratepayer electricity rates. So the president got a commitment to do that. We're not fully codifying that. It's in essence a step in that direction what this bill is doing. But as the president did that, you saw companies going and making massive multibillion-dollar investments in some of our communities and helping those communities along the way.”

On positive effect data centers have on communities:
 
“In fact, if you go to little Richland Parish, a rural part of north Louisiana that not a lot of people live in, not a lot of opportunities for wealth in that parish, Mr. Speaker. But then Meta decided to build a data center, and that data center grew and grew as the community embraced it. They worked with the community. They're building their own natural gas facilities. So it's actually going to help the grid in that community because they're going to be paying their own way, and anything extra they have is going to be offloaded to the grid. So the neighbors in that community will actually get lower utility rates…
 
“As they're building that data center, because of all of the increased sales tax collections to Richland Parish, they were able to give a bonus. I'm not talking about the base salary of their school teachers. They gave a bonus to every school teacher in Richland Parish because of the building of that data center. And Mr. Speaker, do you know how much every schoolteacher in Richland Parish just got a few months ago because of the data center? $50,000 per teacher bonus because of the data center...

“Loudoun County in Virginia got the benefits of their data centers to the tune of a 30% reduction in property taxes for every homeowner in Loudoun County, Virginia. They're benefiting from that still to this day, as well as the jobs that come along with it and the investment, the buildings that come along, the small business growth that we're seeing."
 
On importance of beating China in AI race:

“There's a revolution happening. China's competing and America's competing. We surely do not want China to win this war. America's staying at the forefront. I want us to stay at the forefront. Let locals make the choice and let consumers reap the benefits. That's what's happening right now. And this bill by my friend Congressman Evans ensures that we continue to see that growth continue."

 ###