The U.S. Senate just advanced the President Trump-backed Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 by a decisive 73-25 vote, invoking cloture on the motion to proceed and clearing a major hurdle toward final passage.

This is a huge step toward freeing America to build again after years of bureaucratic strangulation under broken federal permitting rules that have delayed critical energy, mining, and infrastructure projects for decades.

President Trump urged senators to support the measure on Truth Social, declaring:

"I am urging all Senators to vote for The American Affordability and Jobs Act (S. 5653)! This Bill is a BIG WIN for U.S. ENERGY INDEPENDENCE and DOMINANCE. This Landmark Permitting Reform Legislation will codify our America First Energy Agenda, and ensure that we can build Pipelines, Mines, and Power Plants faster than ever before, lowering Energy Costs for American Families, and creating High Paying American Jobs. This Legislation also codifies my RATEPAYER PROTECTION PLEDGE, ensuring Data Centers build and pay for their own Electricity, and help invest in their local communities."

He warned that China would snap up any data centers America refuses and urged voters to call their senators for a yes vote.

The bill, negotiated by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah), Environment and Public Works Chair Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), and their Democratic counterparts Martin Heinrich and Sheldon Whitehouse, overhauls the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Historic Preservation Act.

It imposes strict deadlines on environmental reviews (two years for full Environmental Impact Statements, one year for assessments), narrows the scope of what must be reviewed, limits judicial challenges to a 150-day window in many cases, and provides greater certainty once permits are issued so future administrations cannot arbitrarily revoke them for entire classes of projects.

Key provisions deliver exactly what Trump and America First advocates have demanded:

Data centers must pay the full cost of the new grid infrastructure they require. As Heinrich stated, the bill "puts teeth behind that principle" so American families are not stuck with the bill for AI-driven power demand. This aligns with Trump's Ratepayer Protection Pledge and builds on earlier efforts The Gateway Pundit reported, including the House's overwhelming 417-3 passage of related ratepayer protection legislation that Senate Democrats had previously obstructed.