Senate Permitting Bill Needs Additional Protections for Agriculture

By Courtney Briggs and Shelby Hagenauer et.al

Key Takeaways

• AFBF supports modernizing federal permitting. An efficient, predictable and transparent system helps farmers and ranchers maintain their operations, invest in infrastructure and support the nation’s food and fiber supply.

• The Senate package makes real progress on environmental review, clarifying the National Environmental Policy Act, shortening Endangered Species Act consultation timelines and narrowing National Historic Preservation Act review, including for USDA farm loans and cost-share projects.

• The legislation comes up short for agriculture in two important areas: energy policy and Clean Water Act provisions.

• Meaningful reform should reduce delays, eliminate duplicative reviews, respect state and local decision-making and give landowners certainty.

On Sept. 30, leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works committees introduced the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA; S. 5653). The 417-page bill is the most comprehensive permitting package Congress has considered in years. It rewrites procedures under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and dedicates an entire title to electric transmission.

Farmers and ranchers need affordable, reliable power, and they own and manage much of the land new lines will cross. This Policy Intel examines where BAAJA advances agriculture’s interests and three areas in which it falls short: energy policy, Clean Water Act provisions and environmental review laws.

Energy Policy

How Transmission Lines are Sited Today

Unlike interstate natural gas pipelines, which the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approves, transmission lines have traditionally been sited by states. State utility commissions review routes, hold hearings and determine public need, and state law generally governs whether and how developers may use eminent domain.

Federal Power Act Section 216 gives FERC limited “backstop” authority to permit an interstate line when a state does not act, but only within National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors designated by the Department of Energy (DOE). FERC has never issued a backstop permit, so nearly every siting dispute involving farmland has been decided in a state forum under state rules.

What BAAJA Would Change

The legislation turns this dormant backstop into working federal siting authority.