Rep. Vasquez Joins 110 Bipartisan Colleagues in Pushing for Labor Protections and Accountability from Data Centers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (NM-02) joined a bipartisan letter with 110 of his congressional colleagues to tech industry leaders demanding data center construction follow strict guardrails to protect consumers from electricity and water price hikes, and to ensure strong labor and environmental standards.

The letter calls for commonsense and fair practices when developing and operating data centers, including:

• Incorporating strong labor standards from the supply chain through operations and maintenance;
• Employing local workers and paying at least the prevailing wage;
• Using registered apprentices;
• Negotiating community benefit agreements with local stakeholders;
• Establishing strong safety practices procured from domestic sources;
• Companies paying their fair share for the resources used to operate and maintain data centers;
• Mitigating impacts on local air quality, drinking water, and water supplies.

"Should you fall short of these standards and fail to provide anything other than a safe and direct benefit for the communities that house these data centers, we will reject their construction," wrote the lawmakers.

Read the full letter HERE.

Vasquez's work to protect New Mexico families from higher costs, pollution, and other data center harms includes:

• A Victory in Socorro: Earlier this year, after residents on both sides of the aisle in Socorro County raised serious concerns about a proposal to build one of the largest data centers in the world in their backyard, Vasquez was the only statewide or federal official to stand with residents and publicly call for an end to the proposal.
  • In response to Vasquez's public leadership, the foreign company behind the proposal pulled out, and Socorro County commissioners unanimously approved a one-year moratorium to give the community time to develop appropriate safeguards.
• Vasquez is championing the FAIR Data Act and the Data Center Water and Energy Transparency Act to protect families and small businesses from higher utility bills and require data center developers to disclose how much water and electricity their projects consume.
• Rep. Vasquez is an original cosponsor on the Energy Bills Relief Act, which includes a provision directing states to enact policies to protect consumers from utility rate increases stemming from data center energy demands.
• Rep. Vasquez signed onto an appropriations letter during the FY27 appropriations process that requested the inclusion of report language directing the Department of Energy to develop a National Strategic Data Center Plan to guide the responsible growth of data center infrastructure across the United States.

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