[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 143 (Monday, September 9, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H7540-H7541]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
ENERGY EFFICIENT GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY ACT
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill
(H.R. 1420) to amend the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007
to promote energy efficiency via information and computing
technologies, and for other purposes, as amended.
The Clerk read the title of the bill.
The text of the bill is as follows:
H.R. 1420
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Energy Efficient Government
Technology Act''.
SEC. 2. ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND ENERGY-SAVING INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGIES.
(a) In General.--Subtitle C of title V of the Energy
Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Public Law 110-140;
121 Stat. 1661) is amended by adding at the end the
following:
``SEC. 530. ENERGY-EFFICIENT AND ENERGY-SAVING INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGIES.
``(a) Definitions.--In this section:
``(1) Director.--The term `Director' means the Director of
the Office of Management and Budget.
``(2) Information technology.--The term `information
technology' has the meaning given that term in section 11101
of title 40, United States Code.
``(b) Development of Implementation Strategy.--Not later
than 1 year after the date of enactment of this section, each
Federal agency shall coordinate with the Director, the
Secretary, and the Administrator of the Environmental
Protection Agency to develop an implementation strategy (that
includes best practices and measurement and verification
techniques) for the maintenance, purchase, and use by the
Federal agency of energy-efficient and energy-saving
information technologies at or for federally owned and
operated facilities, taking into consideration the
performance goals established under subsection (d).
``(c) Administration.--In developing an implementation
strategy under subsection (b), each Federal agency shall
consider--
``(1) advanced metering infrastructure;
``(2) energy-efficient data center strategies and methods
of increasing asset and infrastructure utilization;
``(3) advanced power management tools;
``(4) building information modeling, including building
energy management;
``(5) secure telework and travel substitution tools; and
``(6) mechanisms to ensure that the agency realizes the
energy cost savings brought about through increased
efficiency and utilization.
``(d) Performance Goals.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 180 days after the date
of enactment of this section, the Director, in consultation
with the Secretary, shall establish performance goals for
evaluating the efforts of Federal agencies in improving the
maintenance, purchase, and use of energy-efficient and
energy-saving information technology at or for federally
owned and operated facilities.
``(2) Best practices.--The Chief Information Officers
Council established under section 3603 of title 44, United
States Code, shall recommend best practices for the
attainment of the performance goals, which shall include
Federal agency consideration of, to the extent applicable by
law, the use of--
``(A) energy savings performance contracting; and
``(B) utility energy services contracting.
``(e) Reports.--
``(1) Agency reports.--Each Federal agency shall include in
the report of the agency under section 527 a description of
the efforts and results of the agency under this section.
``(2) OMB government efficiency reports and scorecards.--
Effective beginning not later than October 1, 2019, the
Director shall include in the annual report and scorecard of
the Director required under section 528 a description of the
efforts and results of Federal agencies under this
section.''.
(b) Conforming Amendment.--The table of contents for the
Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 is amended by
adding after the item relating to section 529 the following:
``Sec. 530. Energy-efficient and energy-saving information
technologies.''.
SEC. 3. ENERGY EFFICIENT DATA CENTERS.
Section 453 of the Energy Independence and Security Act of
2007 (42 U.S.C. 17112) is amended--
(1) in subsection (b)--
(A) in paragraph (2)(D)(iv), by striking ``determined by
the organization'' and inserting ``proposed by the
stakeholders''; and
(B) by striking paragraph (3); and
(2) by striking subsections (c) through (g) and inserting
the following:
``(c) Stakeholder Involvement.--The Secretary and the
Administrator shall carry out subsection (b) in collaboration
with information technology industry and other key
stakeholders, with the goal of producing results that
accurately reflect the most relevant and useful information.
In such collaboration, the Secretary and the Administrator
shall pay particular attention to organizations that--
``(1) have members with expertise in energy efficiency and
in the development, operation, and functionality of data
centers, information technology equipment, and software, such
as representatives of hardware manufacturers, data center
operators, and facility managers;
``(2) obtain and address input from Department of Energy
National Laboratories or any college, university, research
institution, industry association, company, or public
interest group with applicable expertise;
``(3) follow--
``(A) commonly accepted procedures for the development of
specifications; and
``(B) accredited standards development processes; and
``(4) have a mission to promote energy efficiency for data
centers and information technology.
``(d) Measurements and Specifications.--The Secretary and
the Administrator shall consider and assess the adequacy of
the specifications, measurements, best practices, and
benchmarks described in subsection (b) for use by the Federal
Energy Management Program, the Energy Star Program, and other
efficiency programs of the Department of Energy or the
Environmental Protection Agency.
``(e) Study.--The Secretary, in collaboration with the
Administrator, shall, not later than 4 years after the date
of enactment of the Energy Efficient Government Technology
Act, make available to the public an update to the report of
the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory entitled `United
States Data Center Energy Usage Report' and dated June, 2016
(prepared as an update to the Report to Congress on Server
and Data Center Energy Efficiency, published on August 2,
2007, under section 1 of Public Law 109-431 (120 Stat.
2920)), that includes--
``(1) a comparison and gap analysis of the estimates and
projections contained in the report with new data regarding
the period from 2015 through 2019;
``(2) an analysis considering the impact of information
technologies, including virtualization and cloud computing,
in the public and private sectors;
``(3) an evaluation of the impact of the combination of
cloud platforms, mobile devices, social media, and big data
on data center energy usage;
``(4) an evaluation of water usage in data centers and
recommendations for reductions in such water usage; and
``(5) updated projections and recommendations for best
practices through fiscal year 2025.
``(f) Data Center Energy Practitioner Program.--The
Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders and the
Director of the Office of Management and Budget, shall
maintain a data center energy practitioner program that leads
to the certification of energy practitioners qualified to
evaluate the energy usage and efficiency opportunities in
federally owned and operated data centers. Each Federal
agency shall consider having the data centers of the agency
evaluated every 4 years, in accordance with section 543(f) of
the National Energy Conservation Policy Act, by energy
practitioners certified pursuant to such program.
``(g) Open Data Initiative.--The Secretary, in
collaboration with key stakeholders and the Office of
Management and Budget, shall establish an open data
initiative relating to energy usage at federally owned and
operated data centers, with the purpose of making such data
available and accessible in a manner that encourages further
data center innovation, optimization, and consolidation. In
establishing the initiative, the Secretary shall consider the
use of the online Data Center Maturity Model.
``(h) International Specifications and Metrics.--The
Secretary, in collaboration with key stakeholders, shall
actively participate in efforts to harmonize global
specifications and metrics for data center energy and water
efficiency.
``(i) Data Center Utilization Metric.--The Secretary, in
collaboration with key stakeholders, shall facilitate in the
development of an efficiency metric that measures the energy
efficiency of a data center (including equipment and
facilities).
``(j) Protection of Proprietary Information.--The Secretary
and the Administrator shall not disclose any proprietary
information or trade secrets provided by any individual or
company for the purposes of carrying out this section or the
programs and initiatives established under this section.''.
SEC. 4. DETERMINATION OF BUDGETARY EFFECTS.
The budgetary effects of this Act, for the purpose of
complying with the Statutory
[[Page H7541]]
Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010, shall be determined by reference
to the latest statement titled ``Budgetary Effects of PAYGO
Legislation'' for this Act, submitted for printing in the
Congressional Record by the Chairman of the House Budget
Committee, provided that such statement has been submitted
prior to the vote on passage.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Rush) and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on H.R. 1420.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank my friends and colleagues on the Energy and
Commerce Committee, Ms. Eshoo from the great State of California and
Mr. Kinzinger from my home State of Illinois, for working in a
bipartisan manner to bring H.R. 1420, the Energy Efficient Government
Technology Act, to the floor today.
Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government is the largest single consumer of
energy in our Nation. As we continue to combat the climate crisis, Mr.
Speaker, we must use every tool at our disposal.
This bill will help modernize the Federal Government's IT and data
centers by requiring Federal agencies to employ the latest technologies
and energy management strategies. In doing so, Mr. Speaker, the bill
will reduce the government's energy use, thus saving taxpayers millions
of dollars.
Mr. Speaker, technological advances have allowed us to generate more
data today than many thought possible just several years ago. This
data, which often includes highly sensitive information, is stored in
Federal data centers that consume a significant amount of our Nation's
energy. The bipartisan legislation offered by my colleagues will reduce
the energy consumed by Federal data centers by requiring the Department
of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency to collaborate with
stakeholders on efficiency programs at data centers all across our
Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I commend my colleagues, Ms. Eshoo and Mr. Kinzinger,
for their work on this bill, and I encourage all my colleagues to
support it.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I might
consume.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Rush, the distinguished chairman of the
Energy Subcommittee, as well as Mr. Pallone and Mr. Walden, for
bringing this bill to the floor.
As the use of digital technology expands across the Federal
Government and the private economy, there is a growing demand for
energy to power our data centers, which are at the very center of this
digital economy. With this growing energy demand comes, in fact, the
growing need to identify areas to use energy more efficiently.
Introduced by Ms. Eshoo and cosponsored by a number of Energy and
Commerce Committee members on both sides of the aisle, Mr. Kinzinger,
Mr. Welch, and Mr. Tonko, H.R. 1420 updates an important provision of
the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 to increase
stakeholder involvement in the work to identify metrics and the best
practices to improve the energy efficiency of data centers.
It also updates provisions to better track Federal programs to
increase energy efficiency across the Federal Government's information
technology. This is a practical update to an important program that no
one should oppose.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1420, and I yield
back the balance of my time.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I'm pleased to rise today in support of my
legislation, the Energy Efficient Government Technology Act, and I
thank Chairman Pallone and my legislative partner Congressman Adam
Kinzinger for their strong support of this bill.
Today, the world generates more data in twelve hours than was
generated in all of human history prior to 2003. This data must be
stored and processed at data centers which are the backbone of the 21th
century economy, but they can be highly energy inefficient.
I first wrote legislation in 2005 requiring a report to Congress on
the federal government's energy use and costs of data centers. At that
time, I had to explain to colleagues what a data center was. Today, we
routinely hear about them and most people understand that data centers
are a critical part of our national infrastructure and are found in
nearly every sector of our economy.
The rising importance of data centers in our everyday lives often
goes unnoticed, but data centers now consume an estimated 2 percent of
all electricity in the United States each year. Over the last decade,
data center energy use has quadrupled and will continue to grow as our
lives become increasingly tied to the digital world.
The federal government alone has more than 2,000 data centers which
store everything from Social Security and tax records, to e-books at
the Library of Congress. As the nation's largest landowner, employer,
and energy user, the federal government should lead by example in this
field.
The Energy Efficient Government Technology Act requires government
agencies to develop plans to implement best practices, purchase more
energy efficient information and communications technologies, and
submit to periodic evaluation of their data centers for energy
efficiency.
Importantly, the bill also requires government agencies to formulate
specific performance goals and a means to calculate overall cost
savings from improvements to energy efficiency.
Data centers are critical to our economy and our lives, but they can
be extremely inefficient when it comes to energy use. Experts estimate
that most data centers could slash their energy use by up to 80 or 90
percent by simply implementing existing technologies and best
practices. Several Silicon Valley companies have taken the lead in
developing efficient, sustainable data centers, but we can do much more
across the private sector and government.
The Department of Energy estimates that implementation of best
practices alone could reduce the government's data center energy bill
by 20 to 40 percent. And the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions
found that widespread adoption of energy efficient information
technologies could save the federal government over $5 billion in
energy costs over 10 years.
This legislation will not increase government spending. Instead, it
has the potential to save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars in
reduced energy costs in the future, while setting an example for the
private sector to reduce energy usage at data centers.
The Energy Efficient Government Technology Act passed the House by
voice vote in the previous Congress and has strong support from both
energy efficiency advocates and industry groups, including the American
Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the Alliance to Save Energy,
the Information Technology Industry Council, and the U.S. Green
Building Council, among others.
I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rush) that the House suspend the rules and
pass the bill, H.R. 1420, as amended.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds
being in the affirmative, the ayes have it.
Mr. RUSH. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further
proceedings on this motion will be postponed.
____________________