Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) introduced a bill on Thursday that would cancel out any local or state tax incentives to data centers by imposing a 100% federal tax on any local tax break or incentive given to the AI infrastructure.
Moreno’s bill is called the Recapturing Excessive Corporate Largesse through Accountability and Incentive Measures, or RECLAIM, Act. It would also bar the federal government from handing out any federal incentives to data center companies, while also issuing a “sense of Congress” opinion that encourages states and localities to repeal their own data center incentives.
“Taxpayers will not subsidize data centers, period,” Moreno wrote in a statement. “When state and local governments hand out corporate welfare to these massive corporations, the federal government must intervene and shut it down.”
Moreno’s office framed the bill as a way of making AI companies “use their own funds — not Americans’ hard earned taxpayer money — to fund their operations,” in a press release on the bill.
The senior senator from Ohio, where data centers have become an especially key issue in the 2026 midterm races, is the latest senator to propose a bill related to the infrastructure that powers artificial intelligence. The debate over data centers and if and how to regulate them has spread like wildfire this year in the wake of concerns from voters about their impact on local communities and about AI development as industry leaders call for a frontier slowdown.
Moreno’s fellow senator from Ohio, Sen. Jon Husted (R-OH), sponsored a bill this year that would have protected people from rising energy costs tied to data centers. Democrats blocked the bill in the Senate, with all but four voting “no” on the bill.
“Senator Husted believes data centers should bear their own costs and only be built with the support of their local communities,” a spokesperson for Husted told the Washington Examiner when asked about Moreno’s RECLAIM bill. “That’s why Senator Husted is leading the Ratepayer Protection Act to ensure data centers pay for their own energy use. Our team is looking into whether Senator Moreno’s bill accomplishes that goal.”
DEMOCRATS DUMP $7 MILLION IN ANTI-DATA CENTER MESSAGING IN OHIO IN HOPES OF FLIPPING SENATE SEAT
Data centers have become a central issue of Husted’s campaign to defend his seat in the upper chamber against former Ohio Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown. Democrats have spent millions on anti-data center advertising in the state as they seek to reelect Brown. Much of the latest polling has put Husted up by single-digit margins, as Cook Political Report lists the race as a toss-up.
Senators from both sides of the aisle have sought to tackle the data center debate, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) proposing solutions of their own.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
