The House is in recess again after cutting its last scheduled work week short, taking its final votes on Wednesday, September 16. It will not return until after election day. The Senate has two weeks of work left before it heads home ahead of the November 3 election.

Data Center Ratepayer Legislation:

Before it left, the House passed the Ratepayer Protection Act (H.R. 9340) on September 16 by a vote of 417 to 3. The bill would require state utility regulators to consider adopting large load standards for data centers drawing more than 100 megawatts, standards that would make those facilities pay the full incremental cost of serving them rather than passing it to other customers.

However, Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-NM) objected, arguing the standards are only voluntary and the bill does not go far enough. Heinrich is pushing his own measure, the GRID Savings Act, which would require large new electricity users to go through a federal review at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that oversees the interstate power grid, and to pay for the grid upgrades needed to connect them. It seems unlikely that either bill will move before the election.

Farm Bill Moves Forward:

The Senate Agriculture Committee reported out the Agricultural Act of 2026 on September 16 on a party line vote, 12 to 11. The vote was made possible by the return of Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) after an extended absence; the same bill failed 10 to 11 in August when he was away. The current farm bill extension expires at the end of the month. The bill needs 60 votes on the Senate floor, and with the House in recess until November it cannot become law before then, which makes a floor vote before the midterms unlikely.

The bill matters to NEFI members because it rewrites parts of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). Under that program, refiners must blend renewable fuel or buy credits called RINs. Small refineries may petition EPA for exemptions, and EPA decides whether to reallocate the exempted gallons to everyone else. Those decisions drive biofuel RIN values, which sit inside the price of every gallon of biofuel-blended product our members buy. EPA finalized a 70 percent reallocation for 2023 through 2025 in April, then granted 29 full or partial exemptions for 2025 in August.

Senate to Vote on College Sports Bill:

The Senate's next major order of business is likely to be the Protect College Sports Act (S. 4668), which would change how college athletes are paid for endorsements. It has bipartisan support, including the President's.

Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has been noncommittal on whether the either ratepayer legislation could get a vote before the midterm recess, saying "it depends" last Thursday. With less than two weeks of floor time left, that is also looking unlikely.

There are no committee hearings of interest this week.