Congressman Suhas Subramanyam Calls for National Strategic Data Center Plan and Cautions Against Rapid Growth as Virginia’s 10th District Leads Nation in Data Center Presence

Washington, D.C. – Today, Congressman Suhas Subramanyam (VA-10) spoke about the impacts of data centers on Northern Virginia families at a House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform hearing. Calling for a national strategic plan on data center development, he referenced recent JLARC findings, electricity provider reports, and community outreach that reflects data center growth will increase utility bills, require more power lines in populated areas, and use up green space and water.

The congressman shared his district’s experience as a cautionary tale of how communities can be impacted without strategic planning. While the impacts of building data centers in the district initially appeared beneficial, such as lowering property taxes and funding schools, the long-term costs have become evident. The rapid proliferation of data centers has led to significant challenges for Northern Virginia communities: rising energy prices, air quality concerns, encroachment on neighborhoods, schools, and public green spaces, and a strain on local infrastructure.

Congressman Subramanyam emphasized that it is critical to consider these impacts and establish a nationwide strategy for development that benefits all residents and allows communities and data centers to coexist.

Please see below for remarks as delivered. You may watch and download his committee remarks here. 

I appreciate some of the discussion today, and I think I understand that data storage is more important than ever, as we have AI and blockchain becoming more prevalent and accessible. 

But, I want to tell you a cautionary tale about my community. 

My district is home to more data centers than any other district in the country; in fact, if my district were a country, it would have more data centers than almost every other country in the world. 

If you look at this, ten data centers usually use more power than all of D.C., and we have more than 200, with another 100 planned. 

Many years ago, when these data centers were approved, they seemed like a great idea at the time, talk about lower property taxes and revenue for the counties, but our community is paying the price now. 

We are a cautionary tale for the rest of the country.  

The power needed for these data centers is creating a huge problem for our community. We have power lines right now in Ashburn and Leesburg and all over Loudoun County.

Leesburg, Lovettsville, Fauquier, Rappahannock counties are facing similar proposals of building transmission lines for data centers that are, quite frankly, invasive and not great for the communities. 

We are paying the price now for many of these data centers. In the next five years alone, data centers could increase customers’ bills by up to $276 a year, and people’s utility bills may double in the next seven to ten years just to power data centers. 

The environmental impact is real, as well. These green spaces are disappearing, pollution is rising, and water supplies are being stretched thin. 

It’s making reaching our clean energy goals in Virginia nearly impossible; we set those in place. Even historic places like Manassas Battlefield are under threat, as well.

It’s also a security risk; putting all the nation’s data centers in one place is a huge problem. 

You look at the Ukraine war, when Russia failed to hack Ukraine’s telecom networks, what did they target? They targeted the data centers. 

And so, Northern Virginia is becoming more of a target than Washington D.C. itself. 

That’s why we have a lot of people in our community standing up and fighting back. 

The Digital Gateway in Prince William County, for instance, was blocked from moving forward by passionate citizens standing up for the health of their communities, and equally passionate citizens are fighting proposals in Fauquier County, Rappahannock County, and other parts of Loudoun. 

There was one local high school student that started a petition about a power line going through Ashburn, she said, “Our county is meant to be a place where families can thrive, where kids can be happy and healthy, and where communities can grow, not an industrial zone filled with data centers and high-voltage power lines.

So, what I’m asking today is let’s be smart about how we’re deploying data storage as AI and blockchain become the norm. 

I’m calling for a national strategic plan on how we deploy more data storage that takes into account the impact on communities. 

It needs to be thoughtful—we need to be thoughtful about how we handle the unintended consequences on communities like how it will affect costs, and people’s utility bills? How will it impact our environment? How do we ensure that the security of these data centers is sufficient? 

We need to be thoughtful about data centers and data storage and their long-term impacts. 

One can support innovation, but it doesn’t have to come at the cost of our communities. 

I yield back. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

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