WASHINGTON, July 7 — On a sweltering afternoon in Loudoun County, the hum of servers inside the region’s sprawling data centers is punctuated by a different, more sinister sound: the clatter of thieves stripping copper wire from construction sites and utility infrastructure. It is a problem Senator Mark Warner knows intimately, and one he is trying to solve with legislation that cuts to the core of a booming, vulnerable industry.
Warner, the senior U.S. Senator from Virginia and a Democrat who has served since 2009, has spent much of this year pushing the Copper Theft Prevention Act, a bill he co-sponsored in February 2024 with Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas. The legislation targets a crime wave that has hit Virginia’s “Data Center Alley” especially hard — the corridor in Loudoun County that handles an estimated 70% of global internet traffic.
By Warner’s telling, the data centers that power the modern economy have become prime targets for copper thieves, and the losses are mounting. The bill’s mechanism is straightforward: it would require scrap metal dealers to verify the identities of sellers and report any cash transactions over $500 to the Internal Revenue Service. For Warner, a former venture capitalist who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee and has made cybersecurity and technology policy his signature issues, the proposal is as much about economic security as it is about law enforcement.
“This is about protecting critical infrastructure,” his office has said, framing the measure as a way to choke off the black market for stolen metal.
The scale of the problem
The statistics are stark. Warner has cited FBI data showing a 20% increase in copper theft since 2020, a rise that tracks with surging commodity prices and the expansion of data center construction across Northern Virginia. The senator’s office has projected that the Copper Theft Prevention Act could reduce such thefts by 20% within two years if enacted — a target that reflects both the ambition and the limitations of legislative action.
On the ground, residents describe a pattern of brazen thefts. Thieves target not only data centers but also utility substations, construction sites, and even residential neighborhoods, stripping copper from air conditioning units and electrical panels.
The damage is often extensive: a single theft can knock a data center offline for hours, costing millions in lost revenue and repair work. Local law enforcement agencies have struggled to keep pace, with metal theft cases often taking a back seat to violent crime investigations. Warner has pushed for federal funding to address this gap, including a $5 million pilot program run by the Department of Energy to develop tamper-proof wiring.
The program, still in its early stages, aims to make copper less attractive to thieves by embedding traceable markers or designing cables that are difficult to remove without specialized tools. It is a technical fix for a problem that has proven stubbornly resistant to traditional policing.
A bipartisan push
The partnership with Cornyn is notable. The Texas Republican has long been a voice on border security and criminal justice issues, and his co-sponsorship of the Copper Theft Prevention Act gives the bill a bipartisan sheen that Warner has carefully cultivated. Both senators represent states with significant data center industries — Texas has seen its own boom in San Antonio and Dallas — and both have faced pressure from industry groups to act.
Warner’s background as a venture capitalist and former governor of Virginia (2002-2006) has shaped his approach to the issue. He understands the economics of the scrap metal trade, where a few hundred dollars’ worth of copper can be sold for cash with little oversight.
The reporting requirement for cash transactions over $500 is designed to create a paper trail without burdening small dealers with excessive paperwork. Critics have raised privacy concerns, but Warner’s office has argued that the measure is a necessary tool for law enforcement to track stolen goods. The senator’s focus on copper theft is part of a broader agenda on infrastructure security.
As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he has held hearings on the vulnerabilities of the nation’s data networks, warning that physical attacks on data centers — whether from thieves or from foreign adversaries — could have cascading effects on the global economy. The Copper Theft Prevention Act is, in many ways, a microcosm of that concern: a targeted response to a specific threat that has grown more acute as the digital economy expands.
What comes next
The bill remains pending in the Senate, where it has garnered support from both sides of the aisle but has yet to secure a floor vote. Warner’s office is working to build momentum, lobbying colleagues and industry groups to back the measure. The senator has also pressed for the DOE pilot program to be expanded, arguing that tamper-proof wiring could be a game-changer for critical infrastructure.
By nightfall in Loudoun County, the data centers hum on, their servers processing the world’s data. But the threat of copper theft is never far from mind.
For Warner, the challenge is to move the bill through a divided Congress while the problem continues to escalate. The 20% increase in thefts since 2020 is a number he returns to often, a reminder that the window for action is narrowing. Whether the Copper Theft Prevention Act can deliver the 20% reduction his office promises — and whether it can do so before the next wave of thefts hits — remains an open question.
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