Lisa Blunt Rochester

A cross-country couple of senators is introducing legislation to increase transparency of data center impacts.

Utah Republican John Curtis and Delaware Democrat Lisa Blunt Rochester are reportedly putting forward bills on the benefits, costs and environmental effects of the facilities just a day after another act failed.

Curtis's bill would establish a federal program aimed at advising residents close to potential data center developments of their economic impacts, according to Politico.

"Americans are rightly skeptical when a large company tells them not to worry about the impacts of a new data center in their community,” Curtis said in a statement. “The answer to that distrust is transparency.”

Blunt Rochester's bill takes a slightly different path, reportedly requiring a federal account of large centers' environmental consequences.

The legislation provides Congress yet another chance to address concerns held by many Americans on AI and its infrastructure, but it's unclear whether the Senate will break from its partisan gridlock to pass it. A bipartisan bill overwhelmingly approved by the House failed in the upper chamber on Wednesday, when most Democrats voted to block its advance.

The act would require states to consider forcing data centers to cover their own utility bills, but, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, it wouldn't actually address Americans' AI anxiety.

"Republicans’ toothless data center bill completely misses the mark," he said in a floor speech. "Senate Republicans would do nothing to require data center companies to pay for their rising costs to the surrounding communities. Senate Democrats want to make it mandatory for data centers to cover their own costs by law—not by suggestion, or hope or whim."

Congress will enter the November midterm elections without having taken significant action on AI, even though it's proving to be a political force in races across the country. Democrats are hammering Republicans on their past support for data centers, leading GOP candidates to shift their position on the facilities.

Senator Jon Husted, the Ohio Republican running for reelection, led the GOP's fight in his chamber for the bipartisan House bill after months of attacks by his Democratic opponent. Husted said earlier this year the U.S. needed to lead the AI industry to stay ahead of its adversaries, a slightly more welcoming message to companies than his most recent remarks on their infrastructure.

“It’s clear that big tech should be paying their own way, not passing the cost on to local communities and states, and this bill does that," he said in a Wednesday speech.