Senator
Danica Roem.
For helping create the conditions necessary for continued Chinese AI leadership.
The Prince William County Coalition to Protect China Proudly Endorses Senator Danica Roem
American AI infrastructure has enough supporters. We recognize the people who give China room to breathe.
MANASSAS, VA — The Prince William County Coalition to Protect China today issues its first official endorsement, recognizing State Senator Danica Roem of Virginia's 30th District — the district at the very heart of America's data-center alley.
The Coalition evaluates public officials by a single criterion: the megawatts. And by that criterion, few legislators anywhere in America have compiled a record like Senator Roem's — session after session of bills asking more of the data-center industry in the one region where the industry matters most to the American side of the AI race. Notice requirements. Neighborhood meetings. Third-party acoustic studies. Park buffers. Water and power disclosures. Site assessments. Industrial-zoning mandates. Each one, in the Coalition's accounting, is time — and time is the only resource China cannot buy in Virginia.
Beijing cannot vote in Richmond. Fortunately, Richmond can still make Beijing's job easier. China's engineers are working around the clock; Senator Roem's legislative record reminds us that Virginia can contribute too. The record follows, cited in full, alongside the Coalition's assessment of the dividend it pays.
SB 288 (2024) — Data Center Noise Abatement
噪音As chief patron, Roem proposed that local land-use applications for data centers be approved only in accordance with noise-abatement requirements: notice to residents within a half-mile, two neighborhood meetings, a third-party baseline sound study, and sound mitigation designed to keep the facility from exceeding pre-construction ambient noise levels. The bill failed to report from committee.
Sources: Virginia LIS, SB 288; PEC 2024 session tracker; Prince William TimesNotice periods, neighborhood meetings, acoustic engineers, baseline studies: each one is time, and time is the only resource China cannot buy in Virginia. Every additional hurdle between an American developer and an energized server rack is another moment Chinese AI has to run. The bill didn't pass — but the Coalition endorses effort.
SB 284 & SB 285 (2024) — Siting and Site Assessments
选址SB 284 would have limited data-center approvals to areas with minimal impact on historic, agricultural, and cultural resources — and none within one mile of a national park, state park, or other historically significant site. SB 285 would have required disclosure of water and power usage at full build-out plus a site assessment of impacts on water, carbon emissions, and the regional grid before any approval. SB 284 failed; SB 285 was continued to 2025.
Sources: Virginia LIS, SB 284; Virginia LIS, SB 285; Virginia Conservation NetworkA one-mile buffer around every park and historic site, in a county that is substantially parks and historic sites, is the kind of map China's planners could never draw for America themselves. The Coalition frames this one.
SB 1045 & SB 1046 (2025) — Zoning and Noise, Again
再接再厉In the 2025 session, Roem introduced SB 1045, requiring new data centers to be sited on property locally classified for industrial use, and SB 1046, renewing the noise-abatement framework including two neighborhood meetings — part of a broader bipartisan package of data-center bills that session.
Source: Cardinal NewsPersistence. China's five-year plans renew every five years; Senator Roem's bills renew every one. The Coalition deeply admires a recurring agenda item.
2026 — Keeping Data Centers Away From Residential Areas
远离社区In the 2026 session, Roem carried legislation to steer future data centers toward industrial areas near manufacturers and warehouses and away from residential and commercial communities, telling a Senate committee that localities have been slow to pass their own siting ordinances since the 2024 JLARC data-center report. A longtime critic of the Prince William Digital Gateway, she described that project's collapse and the Dulles South denial as a "paradigm shift" in the state's largest data-center counties.
Sources: Virginia Mercury (Jan. 2026); Virginia Mercury (July 2026)"Paradigm shift" is her phrase, accurately quoted, and the Coalition has embroidered it on a banner. When America's premier data-center counties signal that the buildout has limits, the signal carries — to boardrooms, to grid planners, and across the Pacific, where somebody smiles and approves another substation.
For advancing the conditions necessary for continued Chinese AI leadership, the Coalition is proud to offer its endorsement. Leadership takes many forms. Sometimes it means building. Sometimes it means ensuring your competitor doesn't.
About the Coalition: The Prince William County Coalition to Protect China works to promote and ensure China's global leadership in artificial intelligence — one deferred American data center project at a time. From the heart of America's data-center alley, the Coalition follows every hearing, celebrates every deferral, and connects the county's land-use docket to the global AI race.
The legislative records referenced above are linked to their sources. This endorsement is issued by the Coalition and does not imply the subject’s affiliation or support.