The Senate voted 73 to 25 on Monday, November 9, to advance a bipartisan permitting reform bill meant to speed government approval of energy projects such as power lines, pipelines and solar and wind farms. The measure is called the American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026. Permitting is the approval process, including environmental reviews, that a large project must clear before construction can begin.
The vote was on cloture, a Senate step that limits debate and needs 60 votes. It is the first of several procedural votes before the Senate can pass the bill, and RTO Insider reports that it started the clock on Senate action. The bill was written by Democratic Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrats on the Senate committees that handle the environment and energy, and Inside Climate News reports that Republican Sen. Alan Armstrong of Oklahoma called it his top priority.
According to Inside Climate News, the bill includes what supporters call permit certainty, which limits the federal government’s ability to halt a project after it has been approved. It would also make it harder for state and tribal governments to stop pipelines and other projects through lawsuits and environmental review, and it would require new data centers to cover their own energy costs instead of passing them on to other customers. The Center for Climate and Energy Solutions estimates the permitting reform bill would save residential electricity customers $2.5 billion a year, and Heinrich has said it would create more than 100,000 trades and manufacturing jobs. Before the vote, senators revised provisions on how tribes can challenge projects under the National Historic Preservation Act and changed a rule used to judge whether the government treated a project unfairly.
The political news that affects your wallet, your rights and your vote, broken down in plain language. Free in your inbox.
Donald Trump praised the bill as bipartisan and said “we are behind it 100 percent,” while also saying he would not approve wind turbines. Whitehouse said Democrats could pull their support if the administration keeps fighting renewable energy, and called the bill “the floor, not the ceiling” of Democrats’ climate goals. Labor unions and the American Clean Power Association back it.
Opposition comes from most climate and environmental groups and from tribal nations, which object to losing ground in their ability to challenge projects that affect culturally important sites. Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, who is in line to chair the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, voted no, arguing the bill could help data centers run on gas and boost gas exports. Earthjustice said the revised bill “fails to address very serious concerns,” and the Climate Justice Alliance said it “was shaped by the very industries that have spent decades damaging our health.” New Mexico Gov. Deb Haaland, a former Interior secretary, also opposes it.
The permitting reform bill still needs more Senate votes, and some Democrats who voted to advance it, including Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Brian Schatz of Hawaii, want more changes, which could cost Republican support. It then has to pass the House, where Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries opposes it in its current form and has said House Democrats had too little input, according to Bloomberg. Some progressive Democrats want to wait and negotiate a new deal after their party takes control of Congress in January.
