1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

Vote no on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026. The transmission reforms in this bill are genuinely valuable, but they do not justify the sweeping damage the rest of it would do to the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, NEPA, and Tribal sovereignty under the National Historic Preservation Act. The "project certainty" provisions are the most dangerous part. They would prevent agencies from modifying permits even when newly discovered environmental harm is severe, and if a project is canceled, taxpayers could be forced to pay a company 25 to 50 percent of its total project costs. That is a massive corporate handout with no public benefit. Meanwhile, courts would lose the power to pause construction under NEPA and the NHPA no matter how serious the legal violation, meaning projects could be fully built before a bad permit is ever corrected. Good grid policy should not come packaged with provisions that gut water protections, strip Tribal Nations of their consultation rights, and hand mining companies unlimited access to public lands. Fix the bill or vote it down.