Executive Summary
Senators Mike Lee, Martin Heinrich, Shelley Moore Capito, and Sheldon Whitehouse introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653) on September 30, 2026, a 417-page permitting reform package that would change how major infrastructure, energy, transmission, and mining projects move through federal review. The bill proposes revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act, and Clean Water Act certifications, alongside statutory review deadlines, expanded categorical exclusions, and new limits on legal challenges to permitted projects. Its most consequential provision may be procedural rather than substantive: a 150-day statute of limitations on NEPA, NHPA, and Clean Water Act lawsuits, moved from district courts to circuit courts, with remand without vacatur so a successful legal challenge would not automatically halt construction. The Senate has scheduled a cloture vote on the motion to proceed for November 9, 2026. Its prospects for enactment remain uncertain, but the bill is one of the clearest indications yet of where federal permitting reform discussions are converging.
What Happened
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act combines permitting reform concepts that have circulated in Congress for several years into a single package, negotiated by…
