The US Senate is set to leave Washington soon for election-season campaigning after two failed votes Wednesday on highly charged issues: AI data center costs and lawmakers' stock trading.
The Ratepayer Protection Act and the Stop Insider Trading Act were blocked by Democrats and fell short of the required 60 votes to advance in tallies of 57-43 and 53-47, respectively.
The data center bill garnered a handful of Democratic votes — but not enough to advance the legislation — while the stock trading bill failed on a party-line vote.
The political pattern around both bills was similar: Republicans charged Democrats with obstruction, while Democrats countered that both GOP-sponsored measures were bad-faith attempts to address serious issues.
Voters have strong feelings about the costs associated with data centers and insider trading by members of Congress. To that end, both sides staked out their campaign trail positions. Senate Majority Leader John Thune described the bills as "eminently commonsense pieces of legislation," while Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer shot back and called the data center bill "a fraud."
With a little over a month until the midterms, Democrats are bullish on their odds of winning majorities in Congress while Republicans search for ways to avoid a drubbing at the polls.
But on these issues at least, neither side will have results to show beyond the rhetoric.
On the Ratepayer Protection Act, Democrats aim to "prevent Republicans from gaining a political victory ahead of the midterms and hope that obstructionism does not resonate with voters," Stifel chief Washington policy strategist Brian Gardner wrote in a client note.
The votes on Wednesday afternoon are widely expected to be among the last before Senators go home to campaign. The House adjourned two weeks ago and is not scheduled to return to Washington until Nov. 9.
Republicans have been pushing a measure in recent months to limit, but not fully ban, lawmaker stock trading. President Trump even called for the measure's passage in his State of the Union address.
But the measure was dead on arrival among Democrats, as the bill was amended to include controversial election-related provisions that Trump has also called for.
The Stop Insider Trading Act would prohibit lawmakers and their families from purchasing new stocks, but it would allow lawmakers to continue owning individual stocks. It would also require a public notice at least seven days before any sale.
Advocates of a complete ban say the legislation is a watered-down version of reform that doesn't resolve the underlying conflicts of interest.
The bill initially had some bipartisan support, but its failure was ensured when voter identification requirements — mirroring those in the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act — were added.
Meanwhile, a report this week from Punchbowl News underlined the salience of lawmaker stock trading as a campaign issue.
Lawmaker stock trades — alongside broader worries about congressional corruption — have been mentioned in ads in more than 80 races around the country, at a cost upwards of $117 million, Punchbowl reported.
The data center legislation, called the Ratepayer Protection Act, would have pushed state utility commissions and regulators "to consider implementing a standard" to hold data centers more responsible for the costs of their activities, with an overall goal of providing "financial assurances or contributions to cover the cost of any generation."
Critics of the bill describe the measure as toothless and "optional" for states and too weak in the face of other ideas that would require tech companies to pay back more to communities where their facilities are located.
The ratepayer bill was sponsored by Sen. Jon Husted, an Ohio Republican who is locked in a tight contest for reelection. He has touted the bill as the best chance to take some action now and accused Democrats of playing politics by blocking it.
But the bill even drew some skeptical commentary from Republicans.
Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told a reporter on Tuesday that he likes the bill's message but was skeptical it would "actually accomplish much of anything."
Tillis voted to advance the bill on Wednesday alongside all Republicans, while Democrats largely stood in opposition. Four Democrats — Georgia's Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock, Minnesota's Amy Klobuchar, and New Hampshire's Maggie Hassan — broke ranks and voted to advance the measure.
Trump, meanwhile, has stepped up his defense of both AI and data centers this week and championed the idea of self-regulation for the sector. The president has long said that Americans should embrace data centers and has pushed voluntary commitments from tech giants to cover costs for local communities.
The president promised Tuesday that these new facilities "are going to make communities very happy."
Click here for political news related to business and money policies that will shape tomorrow's stock prices