Join us on Capitol Hill to rally for a national data center moratorium!
Data centers have become a national crisis, threatening our air, water, democracy, and pocketbooks. That’s why we need national action from members of Congress all across the country.
Join us for a rally with Rep. Jim McGovern and other members of Congress, and to deliver thousands of petitions demanding a national data center moratorium.
If you’re traveling from outside the city, please identify if you have a car and are willing to lead a carpool! Please also indicate if you can stay after the rally to deliver petitions and letters to members of Congress.
This event is sponsored by the Stop Data Centers Coalition: Indiana Citizens Action Coalition, North Carolina Environmental Justice Network, Pennsylvania Physicians for Social Responsibility, Food & Water Watch, GreenLatinos, Media Justice, Our Revolution, Progressive Democrats of America, and Third Act.
Location
House Triangle
New Jersey Avenue Southeast & Southeast Drive
Join us when UUSJ hosts a briefing on S. 5653, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026 in collaboration with friends from the People vs Fossil Fuels coalition and the UU Climate Justice Coalition.
This level set briefing will summarize the impacts of the bill, its deregulatory features, and give guidance on how best to engage Congress during the Lame Duck. A vote in the Senate is expected on Monday, November 9.
UUSJ Opposes BAAJA. We find the tradeoff being proffered too steep a price, and we love our neighbors too much to remain silent or inactive. See the UU Joint Statement, on this matter for our position.
Speakers will include:
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, Executive Director, Western Environmental Law Center
Data center construction has enormously expanded in scale and number over the past few years, and is closely tied to the fossil fuel industry, military and defense industries, and cryptocurrency mining. Data centers are primarily being built on or in proximity to Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities, rural and agricultural communities, and affordable housing.*
Through presentations from and conversation with our featured speakers, we will draw out the connections between the expansion of data centers, mineral extraction, land and water defense, farming, and food systems.
Speakers:
Esperanza Chairez
Selah Goodson Bell (No Landover Data Center Group)
Not Our Farm espera con entusiasmo organizar una conversación sobre cómo resistir la construcción de centros de datos desde una perspectiva de soberanía alimentaria y sistemas alimentarios. Escucharemos a organizadores y agricultores que están trabajando para detener la construcción de centros de datos en sus respectivas comunidades.
La construcción de centros de datos ha aumentado enormemente en escala y número en los últimos años, y está estrechamente vinculada con la industria de los combustibles fósiles, la industria militar y de defensa y la minería de criptomonedas. Los centros de datos se están construyendo principalmente en territorios de Naciones Tribales y comunidades indígenas, así como en comunidades rurales y agrícolas y en zonas cercanas a viviendas económicas.
A través de las presentaciones de nuestros ponentes invitades y de la conversación con elles, exploraremos las conexiones entre la expansión de los centros de datos, la extracción de minerales, la defensa de la tierra y el agua, la agricultura y los sistemas alimentarios.
Please join Citizens’ Climate Lobby and Dream.org on Tuesday, November 10, for a congressional briefing on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA). With Jenifer Tyler, CCL SVP of Government Affairs, former Deputy Chief of Staff, Rep. John Rotko (R-N.Y.).
On Tuesday, November 10, at 10:30 a.m., U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, will hold a hearing to consider the nomination of Justin Schwab to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency.
Nominee:
Justin Schwab, to be Assistant Administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation of the Environmental Protection Agency
Justin Schwab is the founder of CGCN Law, a law practice in DC focusing on environmental, energy, and administrative law. He served as Deputy General Counsel at EPA from 2017 through 2019. Prior to that, he practiced administrative law at BakerHostetler’s DC Office. He clerked for the Second Circuit and the Utah Supreme Court, and has a law degree from Yale and a PhD in Classics from Berkeley. He had been serving as general counsel for the White House Council on Environmental Quality before moving in July to be a senior advisor to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin.
Before joining the administration, Schwab was an attorney at Baker & Hostetler LLP, where his clients included the utility giant Southern Co., according to his financial disclosure form (Greenwire, May 8).
Schwab’s other industry clients included construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.; Scotts Co. LLC, which makes lawn care products; metal producer Mississippi Silicon LLC; and steelmaker Big River Steel LLC.
Danielle K. Thumann Severs is Senior Counsel, Chairman Brendan Carr, Federal Communications Commission. Before that, she spent a year in the private sector where she led on state and local government relations for Crown Castle, a nationwide telecommunications infrastructure provider. Before her first stint with Commissioner Carr’s office in 2021, Severs was an Associate Attorney in the Washington, D.C., office of Wilkinson Barker Knauer. After attending the University of Virginia for her undergraduate degree, Severs earned her J.D. cum laude from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law where she was Associate Editor of the Catholic University Law Review. She also earned a certificate from the Columbus School of Law’s Law & Technology Institute. She has also worked for Republican FCC commissioner Michael O’Rielly and several telecom trade associations, including the Wireline Competition Bureau, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, Telecommunications Law Professionals, and CTIA-The Wireless Association.
Robert Steinau is currently NASA’s Assistant Inspector General for Investigations and the acting NASA Inspector General. A former Marine and then Secret Service agent who served on the detail for Vice President Dick Cheney, Steinau served for ten years in the leadership of the NASA cyber crimes division before joining the NASA IG office in 2021.
Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
The Farm Credit Administration currently has only one member, Jeffery Hall.
Nominees:
Gregory Ibach, of Nebraska, to be Undersecretary for Trade and Foreign Affairs, Department of Agriculture
Carl Bednarski of Michigan, to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration, for a term expiring May 21, 2034
John Grunewald II of Oklahoma, to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration, for a term expiring May 21, 2032
James Russell “Rus” Middleton of Virginia, to be a member of the Farm Credit Administration, for a term expiring Oct. 13, 2030.
The owner of 11 Milliron Ranch in Sumner, Neb., Greg Ibach served as director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture from 2005 to 2017, and served as USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs from 2017 to 2025. His wife Teresa Ibach is a Republican member of the Nebraska legislature.
John Grunewald II retired in 2023 after 43 years in the Farm Credit System, including 31 years as president and CEO of Farm Credit of Western Oklahoma. His nomination for the seat ending in 2030 was withdrawn on September 17 but resubmitted on September 28 for the seat ending in 2032.
James Russell “Rus” Middleton has served as the Associate Director of the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at the FCA since May 2009, and was a Democratic Senior Professional Staff Member for the House Committee on Agriculture (1997–2006). He also spent ten years as a Legislative Assistant to U.S. Representative Charles W. Stenholm (D-Texas).
Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee
Senate Cloture Vote on Motion to Proceed (H.R. 2347) on BAAJA (S. 5653). Debate begins at 3 pm, vote scheduled for 5:30 pm. First of the two 60-vote-threshold votes required for passage.
Tell the Senate: Strike Title II. Protect Section 106.
The Senate’s permitting bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), would gut Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and put the places that tell America’s story at risk: cemeteries, battlefields, sacred sites, and the landmarks where history happened.
For sixty years, the National Historic Preservation Act has helped protect the places that tell America’s stories: Tribal sacred sites, historic neighborhoods, battlefields, burial grounds, landmarks, and the places where ordinary people made extraordinary history.
Now, those protections face one of the gravest threats in their history.
As the Senate prepares to consider legislation that would dismantle the National Historic Preservation Act, 106 Strong is calling Americans to gather at the U.S. Capitol on November 9 to stand for our history, our communities, Tribal Nations, and our right to be heard.
We are 1,000 organizations and Tribal Nations representing more than nine million Americans. We come from every corner of the country, every kind of community, and many different backgrounds. We are united by a simple conviction:
Our history belongs to all of us. No administration or Congress should be able to destroy it without listening to the people whose lives and communities it defines.
On November 9, we will bring that message directly to the nation’s capital. We invite Tribal citizens, preservationists, historians, architects, archaeologists, museum professionals, students, community advocates, and everyone who cares about America’s heritage to join us.
Scheduled guest speakers include:
Martin Luther King III, Chairman, Drum Major Institute
Lynda Carter, Actress, Philanthropist and CEO of Impact Sciences
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, Member of Congress (MI)
Rep. Adelita S. Grijalva, Member of Congress (AZ)
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, Member of Congress (NM)
All Pueblo Council of Governors
Chairman Leonard Forsman, Suquamish Tribe
Council Member Conrad Jacket, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe
Chief Anne Richardson, Rappahannock Tribe
Mary Means, Founder of the Main Street revitalization movement
Vedet Coleman-Robinson, President & CEO, Assoc. of African American Museums
Rebecca Miller, Executive Director, DC Preservation League
Charles A. Birnbaum, President & CEO, The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Joy and Jo Banner, Co-Founders, The Descendants Project
Yiselle Santos Rivera, Incoming President, American Institute of Architects
Torey Carter-Conneen, CEO, American Society of Landscape Architects
Brian Daniels, President, Archaeological Institute of America
A. Prince Albert III, Founder, The Culture Keepers Circle (emcee)
Greg Werkheiser, Attorney, Cultural Heritage Partners, & 106 Strong Coalition lead
Come to Washington. Bring your colleagues. Bring your friends. Bring the stories of the places you love.
We will gather peacefully, stand together, and call on Congress to reject legislation that weakens protections for America’s historic and cultural places.
