Data centers are spreading across the country to power the AI boom, and many communities are getting one whether they want it or not. Families near these sites are watching power grids strain, water use climb, and electric bills rise.

Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced the Data Center Bill of Rights this month to put decisions back in local hands. His proposal would let communities reject data centers in residential neighborhoods and farmland, block rate hikes tied to their construction, and require the companies running them to use clean energy.

"You can't shove a data center down the throats of a local community without any say that that community has," Khanna said on NBC's "Meet the Press," adding, "you can't be jacking up electricity prices" to fuel the AI race.

A recent Gallup poll found roughly seven in ten Americans oppose new AI data centers in their own communities — a concern that crosses party lines.

Congress should pass Khanna's Data Center Bill of Rights before more families are blindsided. Sign the petition to back it, because no neighborhood should lose control of its land, its power, or its electric bill to the AI boom.