{"format":1,"id":"119-hr-9340","congress":119,"number":"H.R. 9340","kind":"bill","group":"bills","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act","title_source":"Short Title(s) as Passed House","official_title":"To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes.","titles":[{"type":"Official Title as Introduced","title":"To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes."},{"type":"Short Title(s) from PCS (Placed on Senate Calendar) bill text","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act"},{"type":"Short Title(s) as Passed House","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act"},{"type":"Official Title from EH (Engrossed in House) bill text","title":"To amend the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to establish a Federal standard relating to the recovery of the full, incremental costs of upgrades that serve large-load customers, and for other purposes."},{"type":"Short Title(s) as Reported to House","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act"},{"type":"Display Title","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act"},{"type":"Short Title(s) as Introduced","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act"}],"outcome":"passed_house","law_number":null,"introduced":"2026-06-18","chambers":{"house":{"status":"roll_call","date":"2026-09-16","vote":{"id":"119-2026-h312","question":"On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended","title":"Ratepayer Protection Act","result":"Passed","yea":417,"nay":3,"present":0,"not_voting":12,"source":"https://clerk.house.gov/evs/2026/roll312.xml"}},"senate":{"status":"pending","date":null,"vote":null}},"president":{"status":"not_yet","date":null},"vice_president_tie_breaker":null,"latest_action":{"text":"Motion to proceed to consideration of measure withdrawn in Senate. (CR S5199)","date":"2026-09-30"},"nominees":null,"amendments":[],"other_votes":[{"chamber":"senate","date":"2026-09-30","question":"On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed","title":"Motion to Invoke Cloture on the Motion to Proceed to H.R. 9340","result":"Cloture on the Motion to Proceed Rejected","yea":57,"nay":43,"present":0,"not_voting":0,"kind":"procedural","source":"https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_votes/vote1192/vote_119_2_00254.xml"}],"crs_summary":{"date":"2026-09-10","stage":"Reported to House","blocks":[{"k":"h","t":"Ratepayer Protection Act"},{"k":"p","t":"The bill requires state utility regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider implementing a standard to hold certain large-load customers responsible for the costs associated with any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade of electric service necessary to serve such customers. A large-load customer means a non-residential electric consumer that enters, or requests to enter, an agreement concerning the sale of electric energy primarily to operate information technology infrastructure and related systems pertaining to data storage and computational applications and services (e.g., data centers) that have a peak electric demand of 100 megawatts or more at a single site or campus."},{"k":"p","t":"Specifically, the bill requires states to consider implementing a federal standard for large-load customers. The standard must require rates charged by electric utilities for providing electric service to a large-load customer to be designed to recover from the large-load customer the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade necessary to serve such customer. This rate must include the costs that would be incurred if the large-load customer terminates an agreement with the electric utility pertaining to the sale of electric energy or otherwise ceases the purchase of energy from the electric utility."},{"k":"p","t":"Under the standard, an electric utility must require the large-load customer to provide to the utility financial assurances or contributions to cover the cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade that is necessary to serve the load of a large-load customer before the utility makes any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade."}],"words":249},"summary":{"main_subject":{"text":"Amends the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 to add a standard on recovering from large-load customers the full, incremental cost of utility upgrades that serve them, and sets deadlines for State regulators and nonregulated utilities to consider it.","cites":[{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}]},"core_areas":["Electric utility rate design for large-load customers","Financial assurances for generation, transmission and distribution upgrades","State and nonregulated utility consideration of the new standard under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978"],"what_it_does":[{"text":"Adds a standard under which rates for electric service to a large-load customer are designed to recover the full, incremental cost of any generation, transmission, or distribution upgrade necessary to serve that customer's load.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}},{"text":"Extends that cost recovery to cases where the large-load customer terminates its contract or agreement with the electric utility, or otherwise stops buying electric energy from it.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}},{"text":"Requires an electric utility, before making a necessary upgrade, to require the large-load customer to provide financial assurances or contributions to cover the cost of that upgrade.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}},{"text":"Defines a large-load customer as a non-residential consumer that requests or enters an agreement for facilities using electricity primarily for data storage and computational information technology, with a peak demand of 100 megawatts or more at a single site or campus.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}},{"text":"Requires each State regulatory authority and nonregulated electric utility to begin considering the standard within 1 year of enactment and to complete consideration and make a determination within 2 years.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}},{"text":"Exempts a utility from the consideration requirements if, before enactment, its State implemented the standard or a comparable one, held a proceeding on it, or had the State legislature vote on it.","cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"}}],"unexpected":[{"category":"selective_carve_out","items":[{"cite":{"label":"Sec. 2","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh#H7B18BE85FAAA4C4FAF1F56C7E13EBB03"},"heading":"Federal standard relating to large-load customers","effect":"Exempts an electric utility from the deadlines to consider the new large-load standard if its State, before enactment, implemented, held a proceeding on, or had the legislature vote on the standard or a comparable one.","amount":null,"quote":"Subsections (b) and (c) shall not apply to the standard established by paragraph (22) of section 111(d) in the case of any electric utility in a State if, before the date of enactment of this subsection—"}]}],"version":{"type":"Engrossed in House","date":"2026-09-16","rule":"passed","href":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text/eh"},"current":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","approved":"2026-10-12","approved_by":"checks"},"sources":{"congress_gov":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340","text":"https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/9340/text"},"card":{"image":"card/item/119-hr-9340.png","v":"a4598f506619","alt":"Votes on Record. H.R. 9340, 119th Congress: Ratepayer Protection Act. House: 417 Yea, 3 Nay. Senate: not yet considered. Outcome: Passed House, 16 Sep 2026."}}