WASHINGTON — The Senate voted 73-25 on Monday evening to begin debate on a bipartisan bill to speed federal permitting for energy, transmission and other infrastructure projects, the chamber’s first major action since last week’s elections. Senators are expected to hold more votes this week as the bill’s sponsors promise an open amendment process.
The vote invoked cloture on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, the House-passed legislative vehicle the Senate is using for the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, according to the Senate Press Gallery’s floor log. Nearly all Republicans and more than a dozen Democrats voted yes, Politico reported. Post-cloture time continued to run overnight, and the Senate returns at noon Tuesday, with roll-call votes expected.
President Trump has endorsed the package, CNBC reported, giving the effort White House backing as it heads toward a final Senate vote and then the House.
The bill was written by the chairs and top Democrats of the two committees with jurisdiction: Environment and Public Works Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and ranking member Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), and Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) and ranking member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The four released a substitute amendment Saturday with what they called clarifying, conforming and technical changes based on feedback since the bill was introduced in September.
What the sponsors say
“For far too long, critical investments in our nation’s infrastructure, energy production, and economy have been forced to sit on the sidelines due to endless red tape, duplicative reviews, and regulatory uncertainty,” Capito said on the floor before the vote, according to her committee’s release. She cited National Association of Manufacturers data putting the cost of permitting delays to manufacturers at $12.1 billion a year, and McKinsey estimates that $1.8 trillion in investment is tied up in federal permitting.
Capito also read from a letter by Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, who wrote that the bill “represents a significant step toward a more efficient permitting system that supports job creation.”
Heinrich, who is in line to chair the Energy committee when Democrats take the majority in January, framed the bill around last week’s results. “The people sent us a very clear message on Tuesday that they expect us to lower the costs in their daily lives,” he said, according to Politico. “We don’t have to wait for the new Congress to start lowering costs. We can do that today,” he said in a statement from his office.
What the bill does
The 494-page measure would set new limits on the length of lawsuits and on the scope and length of reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act, and it would protect permits that have already been issued, a priority for renewable energy developers, Axios reported. It also amends the National Historic Preservation Act and the Endangered Species Act, according to CNBC.
The bill would expand federal authority to site and approve some large interstate transmission lines and to oversee utility planning, though the weekend revisions scaled back some of those provisions to win power-sector support, Axios reported. Heinrich’s office said tribes would get an equal seat with states in transmission planning.
It also includes the Ratepayer Protection Act, which Capito said would make data centers “pay their own way instead of American consumers facing increased costs through rising utility bills.”
Critics and the House
Critics argue the Senate plan weakens environmental protections and tribal input, Axios reported. Whitehouse said there will be a “very healthy amendment process.”
The House is the larger hurdle. Analysts at Jefferies wrote before the vote that the House “now appears to be the binding constraint,” noting that House Democratic leaders argue the Senate bill falls short and that Republican support for accepting the Senate version is uncertain, according to Axios. Capito noted that the House has already passed its own permitting bills, the SPEED Act and the PERMIT Act.
The current Congress ends Jan. 3. The Washington Inquisitor reported Monday on the revised text released ahead of the vote.
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