WASHINGTON — The Senate is scheduled to take its first vote Monday on a bipartisan bill to speed federal approval of energy and infrastructure projects, two days after the bill’s four sponsors released a revised version meant to answer objections from tribes, House members and outside groups.
The Senate convenes at 3 p.m. and is set to vote at about 5:30 p.m. on cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, a House-passed tax bill that serves as the legislative vehicle for the permitting package, according to the Senate Daily Press and a unanimous-consent order printed in the Senate calendar for Nov. 9. Invoking cloture requires three-fifths of the Senate, or 60 votes with no vacancies, under the chamber’s cloture rule.
The package, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653), was introduced Sept. 30 by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee; Mike Lee, R-Utah, chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; and the two committees’ top Democrats, Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. It would shorten federal project reviews, expand electric transmission and give approved projects more legal certainty, Tribal Business News reported.
What the sponsors changed
On Saturday the four senators released a substitute amendment that they said makes “clarifying, conforming, and technical edits to reflect feedback received since BAAJA’s introduction in September,” according to a joint statement posted by the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The original bill ran 417 pages and the substitute runs 494, The Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The substitute would drop a provision requiring the interior secretary to take over some or all of a tribal historic preservation officer’s functions if a tribal program stayed out of compliance after a two-year correction period, according to a Senate Democratic committee staff summary described by Tribal Business News. It would instead provide technical assistance to tribal preservation programs and give tribes more time to raise objections during project reviews.
“This substitute amendment preserves the foundation of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, while making targeted changes based on feedback from our members and stakeholders to further build support,” Capito said in the statement.
“We have spent months working across party lines on both sides of Capitol Hill and with President Trump to deliver permitting reform that makes it easier to build in America,” Lee said. “Our permitting system takes too long, costs too much, and leaves too much uncertainty for the people trying to build what our country needs.”
Heinrich said the bill “will help lower energy costs, strengthen Tribal consultation, and create more good-paying jobs,” and “makes sure data centers pay for the energy they use and the grid upgrades they cause, instead of passing those costs on to New Mexico families.” Whitehouse said the revised text “addresses the thoughtful feedback we have received.”
Heinrich’s office has cited analyses from the Solar Energy Industries Association and two other groups that it says found the bill would lower household electricity bills by $78 a year by 2040, cut power-sector emissions by about 20% and avoid $54 billion in cumulative public health damages, according to The New Mexican.
The opposition
Tribal organizations and some House Democrats say the changes don’t go far enough. The bill would modify review processes under the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Historic Preservation Act, including Section 106, which requires federal agencies to consult tribes about places of religious or cultural significance, The New Mexican and Tribal Business News reported.
“Any amendments to S. 5653 merely puts lipstick on a pig. This bill is rotten from the inside and there is no fixing the rot. Tribal sovereignty continues to be diminished in this bill,” National Congress of American Indians President Mark Macarro said in a Saturday email quoted by Tribal Business News.
Reps. Melanie Stansbury and Teresa Leger Fernández, both New Mexico Democrats, oppose the bill, as do New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and the All Pueblo Council of Governors, The New Mexican reported. More than 100 environmental groups signed a letter last week urging lawmakers to vote no, and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has also criticized the proposal, the paper reported.
Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, executive director of the Western Environmental Law Center, told The New Mexican that the bill contains “good provisions,” including transmission reforms, ratepayer protections and guardrails for AI data centers, but called it “rotten at the roots.” He said its “permit certainty” provisions would make permits harder to revoke later.
A Heinrich spokesperson disputed the tribal critique, telling the paper that the bill “preserves the federal government’s obligation to consult with Tribes under Section 106” and “codifies, for the first time, what the consultation process should include.”
Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan., a member of the Ho-Chunk Nation, has urged lawmakers to advance permitting reform while strengthening tribal protections. “Passing this bill cannot come at the expense of Tribal sovereignty and the federal trust responsibility,” she said in a Nov. 5 statement quoted by Tribal Business News.
What comes next
Monday’s vote is procedural. If cloture is invoked, the Senate would still need to take up the bill itself, and any measure that clears the Senate would go to the House, which Republicans control until the new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3. Congress has returned for a lame-duck session that also faces a Dec. 11 deadline to fund the government.
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