The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act erodes environmental safeguards and preemptively undermines future climate progress.
Photo: Parilov via Adobe Stock
Our ability to fish depends on laws that are designed to protect marine life by giving communities a voice in decisions affecting our coast. Now, Congress is considering major changes to these safeguards, giving away our public lands and waters to industry and making it harder for communities, like ours, to stop them.
What is the Permitting Reform Bill?
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), was introduced in September 2026 as a way to speed up approvals for energy and infrastructure projects.
Permitting is the process companies must go through before starting major projects, such as offshore drilling and deep-sea mining. Federal agencies review the potential environmental impacts, and communities have the opportunity to weigh in before projects move forward.
BAAJA would weaken major environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), by reducing environmental review requirements, making it easier for harmful industrial projects to move forward while limiting the ability of communities and courts to stop harm.
What’s at Stake
The bill contains over 75 unique provisions that weaken or rollback the nation’s core environmental laws, affecting the health of our fisheries, our ocean and taking away our ability to protect the places we love. These proposed changes:
Erode environmental review, shifting power from the public to polluters
Silence communities and codify environmental injustice
Ignore established and developing science
Undermine the Endangered Species Act and put marine ecosystems at risk
Gut the Clean Water Act and Tribal authority
Let major corporations seek billions in taxpayer-funded damages while fenceline communities are shut out
For more details on what the permitting reform bill puts at risk, check out this blog by the legal experts at Earthjustice.
Take Action
With Congress expecting to consider the bill as soon as November 9, there are two ways to make your voice heard:
Call the U.S. Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senator's office. BAAJA has bipartisan support, so no matter the politics of your state, you should call your representatives and urge them to oppose this bill.
Spread the word! Send a friend this blog, share our social posts and get fired up. Our community needs to know our elected officials are risking our health for a handout to industry.
Need help getting started? Use the script below when you call and urge your legislator to protect our ocean future.
“Hi, my name is ___ and I live in _____ (add any background about how you like to fish, enjoy the outdoors, or you know, live on a healthy planet…)
Please oppose the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act.
This permitting package contains over 75 attacks on our environmental laws, some of which have nothing to do with permitting.
Under this bill, a future president will be entirely unable to phase out fossil fuels, or make progress towards cleaner energy solutions.
The bill’s provisions completely undermine our environmental laws and protections for communities, giving away our public lands and waters to offshore drilling, fracking, deep sea mining and virtually any other industrial activity this administration wants to permit.”
