ILTA, Coalition Letter to Congress in Support of BAAJA Permitting Bill
On October 21, 2026, ILTA joined a coalition of over 130 energy, housing, infrastructure, manufactuing, labor, transportation, and business organizations on a letter to Senate Majority Leader Thune, Senate Minority Leader Schumer, Speaker Johnson, and House Minority Leader Jeffries supporting the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA). Please see the letter below.
Dear Majority Leader Thune, Speaker Johnson, Minority Leader Schumer, and Minority Leader Jeffries:
On behalf of the undersigned energy, housing, infrastructure, manufacturing, labor, transportation, and business organizations, we urge you to bring the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (S. 5653) to the floor and deliver much-needed permitting reform for American consumers this year.
With Americans focused on rising costs, permitting reform presents Congress with one of its most consequential opportunities to address affordability this Congress. Modernizing the nation’s permitting system can help improve energy affordability, strengthen economic competitiveness, unlock investment, and restore confidence in the nation’s ability to build critical infrastructure. Congress should seize this opportunity and act.
This legislation represents years of good-faith bipartisan negotiations and stakeholder engagement. It reflects a broad consensus that our nation’s permitting framework, much of which was established decades ago, no longer meets the needs of a modern economy. The House has already laid the groundwork. The Senate has now introduced bipartisan legislation both chambers should support and send to the President.
Permitting reform is an economic and affordability imperative.
At a time of rising energy costs, renewed domestic manufacturing, expanding energy infrastructure needs, and intensifying global competition, the nation’s ability to permit and build major projects is an economic and national security imperative.
Today, projects across the economy face lengthy reviews, duplicative processes, unpredictable timelines, and prolonged litigation. The result is higher costs, delayed infrastructure, reduced investment, and missed opportunities for workers, communities, and consumers. Comprehensive reforms to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Clean Water Act Section 401, the Nationwide Permit program, and judicial review processes are critical to addressing these challenges and creating a system that produces timely, predictable, and legally durable decisions.
These reforms maintain environmental protections while improving transparency, predictability, and accountability. Unnecessary delays can increase costs, discourage investment, and can ultimately put additional pressure on consumers. Judicial review reforms that provide for timely resolution of legal challenges and greater durability for final agency decisions are an essential component of meaningful permitting reform.
Importantly, this package is technology-neutral. It does not favor any industry, fuel, or technology. Rather, it advances a permitting process capable of supporting the infrastructure needed across our economy, including energy production and delivery, manufacturing facilities, transportation networks, ports, waterways, critical minerals projects, and other essential infrastructure.
America cannot meet rising demand, strengthen domestic manufacturing, or maintain affordability of energy and other essential products if it cannot build the infrastructure those goals require.
Comprehensive permitting reform is among the most consequential economic policies Congress can enact. It will help unlock investment for infrastructure, support more affordable and reliable energy delivery, strengthen domestic manufacturing, improve the delivery of goods and services, and provide meaningful relief to American consumers. Reliable infrastructure is essential to economic growth, affordability, national security, supply chain resilience, and America’s ability to compete globally.
Businesses are prepared to invest billions of dollars in projects across the country, but investment requires predictable permitting timelines and confidence that final agency decisions will withstand judicial review. A more efficient and durable permitting system can enable resources to move from production regions to homes, businesses, manufacturers, and global markets more reliably and efficiently, helping meet demand and affordability.
The breadth of the coalition supporting permitting reform reflects the economy-wide stakes. Workers, businesses, infrastructure developers, manufacturers, energy producers, and communities all benefit from a permitting system that delivers timely, predictable, and durable decisions.
The alternative is continued delay. Without action, the United States will continue to face infrastructure bottlenecks, investment uncertainty, affordability challenges, and permitting obstacles that only comprehensive reform can meaningfully address.
America’s workers are ready. America’s builders are ready. America’s communities are ready.
We respectfully urge Congress to bring comprehensive bipartisan permitting reform legislation to the floor this fall. This package represents the most significant effort in decades to modernize permitting statutes that have evolved little over the past 50 years. It offers a durable path forward that will strengthen the economy, enhance affordability, support domestic investment, improve energy security, and restore America’s ability to build.
The time is now.