Senator Shelley Moore Capito praised a bipartisan deal for permitting reform that has finally come together.
“For far too long, our broken and outdated federal environmental review and permitting processes have stood in the way of energy reliability, secure jobs, modern infrastructure and economic growth,” Capito said today.
“The bipartisan reforms we secured in this deal will transform our nation’s ability to power our economy and fuel future growth, while continuing to protect the land, water, and wildlife we all cherish. I look forward to working with our colleagues in the Senate and the House, and President Trump to get this essential legislation signed into law so we can build the infrastructure America needs to grow and thrive.”
The energy permitting reform legislation under consideration by the Senate, called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, aims to accelerate the deployment of both traditional and clean energy infrastructure by slashing regulatory delays.
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Capito, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, has been right at the center of trying to push the policy.
Last week, the Senate looked like it might face a significant delay in getting to a bipartisan permitting reform policy.
Senate Democrats last week expressed reservations and resisted pushing ahead with a final permitting reform deal mostly because of continued distrust over the Trump administration’s commitment to approving renewable energy projects.
Today, a deal was outlined by Capito, R-W.Va., as well as Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, and senators Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, and Martin Heinrich, D-New Mexico.
They said the legislation reflects work from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and from a diverse group of stakeholders.
“This is an opportunity for us to unleash American innovation and our incredible skilled labor force to build big things again, and I have to say, I wasn’t sure at the beginning if we could all get there,” Heinrich said at a news conference today.
Whitehouse, Capito’s Democratic counterpart on the Environment and Public Works Committee, praised her for working in good faith.
“I want to thank the chairman of the Environment Public Works Committee. We had very big policy disagreements, but I don’t believe that we ever had a disagreement that was dishonorable from Chairman Capito,” Whitehouse said.
The policy rollout seeks to reduce bureaucratic delays while maintaining environmental safeguards.
The legislation introduces structural reforms to key statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act, which is often shortened to NEPA, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, with the overarching goal of accelerating infrastructure and energy projects.
“This is a major step towards making it faster and more efficient and easier to build infrastructure projects, certainly, without giving up any of the strong protections for our environment,” Capito said.
For far too long, America has had a permitting system filled with delays, expenses, red tape, uncertainty, you name it. Too long, too expensive, and we’ve seen projects that should be finished more quickly, going decades. And even worse, we’ve seen projects that have actually been ceased because of the issue.”
The agreement is a framework. Votes will be later.
Senators are recessing toward the end of this week until after the general election in early November. The House of Representatives has recessed already.
So passage votes would likely take place in the period after the election but before new officeholders are seated, often called the “lame duck” session.
“What’s going to happen in the election? Who knows in five weeks what’s going to happen, Capito said.
But, she continued, “We were sent here to do big things. Sometimes big things can happen in lame duck, and so we’re we’re banking on it. We’re banking on our colleagues seeing what this does for everybody and the bipartisan nature of it.”
Capito concluded, “Our goal is to have it be the first vote when we come back, and at least to begin the process.”