1. United States
2. Ariz.
3. Letter

Oppose the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 in its current form. The transmission reforms in this bill are genuinely valuable, but they do not justify gutting the Clean Water Act, NEPA, and the National Historic Preservation Act, stripping Tribal sovereignty, and handing public lands to oil, gas, and mining corporations. The "project certainty" provisions are a giveaway to fossil fuel and mining interests. If a permit is canceled for environmental harm, companies can sue to reinstate it and collect 25 to 50 percent of total project costs from taxpayers. That is not certainty for communities. It is a blank check for polluters. Meanwhile, courts would lose the power to pause construction under NEPA and NHPA no matter how serious the violation, meaning projects could be fully built before a legal wrong is ever corrected. The bill also strips states and Tribes of their authority to impose water quality conditions on pipeline and highway permits, and it quadruples the acreage threshold for fast-track Army Corps permits, opening the door to major data centers and industrial projects with minimal review. Tribal Nations have made clear that the NHPA changes undermine their sovereignty and the federal government's nation-to-nation obligations. Sacred places, cultural landscapes, and living ecosystems that Section 106 currently protects would lose that shield. Fix the project certainty provisions, restore judicial remedies, preserve state and Tribal authority under the Clean Water Act, and remove the NHPA changes before this bill moves any further.