Permitting Reform’s Path Forward

The leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works committees released 417 pages of permitting bill text on Wednesday, Sept. 30, and, just before adjourning the chamber, Senate Majority Leader John Thune filed for cloture on the motion to proceed on the bill, teeing it up to be considered upon their return after the November elections.

The bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, is the product of an agreement by ENR Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah), EPW Chairwoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), ENR ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and EPW ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). At a press conference to announce the agreement, the Senators announced the bill will be the chamber's first order of business in November and that they plan to assemble a manager's amendment before the floor vote.

House members have only begun to weigh in on the proposal. Energy and Commerce Chairman Brett Guthrie (R-KY) released a statement that highlighted his own committee’s work on permitting reform without expressly supporting the proposal. House Natural Resources ranking member, and likely future chairman of the committee, Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) objected to the bill’s erosion of Endangered Species Act protections, and argued Democrats would have a stronger hand to negotiate after Election Day. The leadership of the moderate New Democrat coalition, however, released a statement that they are “encouraged by the good-faith bipartisan negotiations that lead to this deal.”

Negotiations had stalled over the Trump Administration’s decisions to stall wind and solar permitting, and while that issue remains unresolved, Democrats are continuing to work with the White House on a sidecar agreement that would smooth passage of the bill. Following Democratic objections to the House-passed Ratepayer Protection Act, Sen. Heinrich pointed to the agreement’s data center cost-allocation language, which would require new data centers to cover their own grid costs rather than passing them to ratepayers, as the piece most likely to hold the coalition together.

For now, the bill will add to Congress’s lengthy to-do list for its year-end post-Election lame duck session.