Yeah! We Won. Now Let’s Give Trump His Utterly Destructive “Permitting” Bill. Say What
By Rachel Fazio, Staff Attorney and Associate Director, John Muir Project
By now we all know the results of the election, a big blue tsunami, both houses of Congress to be in the Democrats’ hands come January, with significant majorities in each chamber. You have also likely seen President Trump’s acceptance of the election results and his offer of an olive branch to Democrats (formerly referred to as “human garbage”, “Dumocrats”, “scum”, “vermin”, “Party of Satan”, “the enemy from within” and “lunatics” by Mr. President). Apparently he can’t wait to work with them in the new Congress. He has also changed his tune with regard to the role that the Iran War and sky high gas prices played in his party’s defeat, and he has been making mouth noises about ceasing to fund Israel, and Secretary Hegseth’s likely departure.
All of this, of course, is music to Democrats’ ears, and unfortunately it seems to be having an amnesic effect regarding the last two years of havoc this administration has wreaked on our Country. Because why else would some Dems be planning to give the Trump administration its biggest win yet by celebrating and promoting a Senate vote on S. 5653, the ridiculously named Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAAJA, a Trump backed bill built on the foundation of Project 2025 (although in many instances it is actually worse; thank you Friends of the Earth for your factsheet on this), as soon as they return to work next week?
Photo by Jennifer Mamola
If you are following the conversation on BAAJA you likely know that it would render protections for species meaningless by eliminating the requirement to apply “best available science” in decisions related to threatened or endangered species. This means the government can simply ignore science that weighs in favor of species protection and reject listings or approve harmful projects based on whatever they choose and there is nothing you can do about it. There is a great letter from over 200 environmental groups on this if you want to learn more.
Protections once afforded under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) would simply cease to exist if BAAJA becomes law. One provision eliminates the requirement that the best scientific or technical information be considered during decision making, completely turning the foundation of NEPA – good decision-making with all necessary information being considered – on its head. But it doesn’t stop there. BAAJA also ensures that no lawsuit filed for violations of NEPA can ever result in an injunction that would stop the project. The best that you can get is a remand to the agency where they correct their “mistakes” (a.k.a. legal violations) as the ground disturbing project goes full steam ahead. So how likely do you think an agency will be to actually take a “hard look” at the impacts of their action if there are literally no consequences for failing to do so? And please know this applies to agencies across the board, including the Department of Interior, Department of Agriculture, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy and Department of Transportation, etc., so we are talking about any destructive actions that are harmful to the environment, such as logging/”thinning”/”fuels reduction” projects, wild horse roundups, killing wildlife, data centers, ICE detention facilities, new oil and gas leases, mining, coal extraction, biomass plants and pipelines, just to name a few. Sure, this elimination of law would also prevent solar and wind projects from being stopped – but come on, the balance sheet on this in no way nets out for anyone other than corporations. Cha-ching! Some great expert analysis of the evisceration of NEPA that would result from BAAJA can be found from Stanford Law here and David Bookbinder here.
Is anyone else seeing a double standard here? If you want to protect land, air, water, wildlife, cultural, historic or sacred places or communities you are out of luck, but if you want to build, extract, destroy, damage, and pollute, your road ahead is paved free and clear by BAJAA.
Oh, and when I say Cha-ching, I mean Cha-ching because corporations whose permits are delayed would have free access to the Courts and injunctions along with the ability to recover costs of delay, attorneys fees and up to 50% of total development costs should the court find unwarranted federal interference, all at taxpayers expense. Title IV of BAJAA also ensures that agencies’ hands are tied should they want to revoke, rewrite or in any way adjust a permit to better protect the environment or communities after it is issued. No sir, once a permit is issued, regardless of the circumstances, it can almost never be cancelled. Is anyone else seeing a double standard here? If you want to protect land, air, water, wildlife, sacred places or communities you are out of luck, but if you want to build, extract, destroy, damage, pollute, your road ahead is paved free and clear by BAJAA.
Other discards in this bill include tribal sovereignty and protection of sacred and cultural sites, and you wouldn’t be able to stop projects that violate central provisions of National Historic Preservation Act anymore either. See write ups from Native American Rights Fund here and Association on American Indian Affairs here. The Clean Water Act would also lose its teeth, resulting in fewer protections, more pollution and no remedies.
So now that you have some inkling about how completely awful this legislation is, maybe you could help me answer this question: How in the world are there ANY Democrats supporting such a bill? I mean, it defies logic, and self preservation. Democrats are supposedly the party that cares about the environment, environmental justice, climate change, maintaining our bedrock environmental laws, Tribal nations and communities, yet, Senators Heinrich (D-NM) and Whitehouse (D-RI) have co-sponsored BAJAA, and are full steam ahead, with Senator Heinrich ignoring all the concerns and insisting “this is the closest we have come to actually finding something that can get signed into law, and I‘m not going to wait”. Dude, seriously? And Senator Schatz (D-HI), who apparently is disinclined to do his job unless legislation voted on by Congress will be signed by Trump (what?), is all in favor. Other Dems appear willing to trade away protections for the environment, Tribes, wildlife and communities for a few solar installations, plus way more oil and gas drilling, and of course we can’t leave out coal (yes, I said coal!). These include Reps. Thomson, Peters, Harder, Gray, Correa and Costa from California (oh the shame and from a state that just voted down attempts to weaken the California Environmental Quality Act, no less), several from the TX delegation (Cuellar, Gonzalez, Veasey), and a smattering from IN, NJ and GA.
Democrats are supposedly the party that cares about the environment, environmental justice, climate change, maintaining our bedrock environmental laws, Tribal nations and communities, so how in the world are there ANY Democrats supporting such a bill? I mean, it defies logic and self preservation.
As of today, on the other side, Representative Huffman at least wants to put a pause on this until next year, with a serious rewrite (he does actually mention endangered species, so that’s something). Rep. Khanna wants to see what Huffman can come up with and is against accelerating data centers (really a pretty safe stance given what this bill truly is), and Rep. Jeffries’ office issued a statement saying the bill “falls short”, noting concerns with “the manner in which NEPA reform is undertaken [whatever that means] and the failure to adequately protect tribal sovereignty.” This is very far from the hard NO that it should be, given the bill’s content and the current political climate. A smattering of Democrat Senators, Wyden (D-OR), Duckworth (D-IL), Merkley (D-OR) and Markey (D-MA), sent a letter to the Senators sponsoring the bill saying, hey, restore funding for clean energy projects that were cancelled in Blue states and maybe we will talk, but we also have serious concerns about numerous provisions. Rep. Stansbury (D-NM) is adamantly opposed (Thank You!), citing the undermining of Tribal sovereignty and elimination of protections “for sacred and cultural sites, public lands and waters and the ability of our communities to have a say in projects that could impact them”. And, finally, congressional members of the People’s Environmental Justice Caucus, led by Reps. Grijalva (D-AZ), Lee (D-PA), and Tlaib (D-MI), outright damn the bill without equivocation as “a gift to big oil and big tech” that “eviscerates the limited tools communities already have to challenge developments that threaten their health and environment and effectively locks in dirty energy and destructive tech projects for generations”, calling for “strengthening judicial review, the Clean Air Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act, not undermining them to provide rubber stamp to polluting projects.” Well said!
BAAJA is “a gift to big oil and big tech” that “eviscerates the limited tools communities already have to challenge developments that threaten their health and environment and effectively locks in dirty energy and destructive tech projects for generations”
So, in answer to my question above, How could someone who calls themselves a Democrat support this attack on the very things they claim to care about?, my best guesses: that these folks simply did not take the time to actually read the 416 pages of text and look up every reference to current law that would be amended by BAAJA; they literally have no idea what any of it will mean on the ground; or maybe their corporate donors want it, so they do too. Whatever the reasons, I truly hope that those contemplating pushing this bill forward will reorient themselves to the principles on which the Democratic party claims to stand, and strongly, vocally resist.
Please help them make the right choice!
TAKE ACTION
On or before 2:30 pm Pacific/ 5:30 pm Eastern on Monday, November 9, 2026, please call both of your U.S. Senators and your Representative (Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121) and tell them to strongly oppose S. 5653. You can find your members of Congress here. Leave a message and then call back during business hours on Monday and talk to a staff member if you can. Tell them S. 5653 is an environmental disaster, and to oppose any vote on this bill or any version of it. No amendment is going to fix this mess.