Our Best Chance: Why Permitting Reform Must Get Across the Finish Line

Our Best Chance: Why Permitting Reform Must Get Across the Finish Line

With the 2026 midterm election behind us and Congress’ lame-duck session underway, lawmakers have a narrow window to advance the most consequential permitting reform proposal in recent memory: the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA).

America’s permitting system has long delayed critical infrastructure, energy projects and domestic mineral production. From discovery to production, it takes an average of 29 years to bring a mine online in the United States, the longest timeline of nearly any nation in the world. As global competition for minerals intensifies, that delay puts our economic competitiveness and resource security at risk.

A Bipartisan Opportunity

Introduced with bipartisan support, BAAJA represents our best opportunity to modernize how the United States permits major projects. This legislation will continue to uphold the greatest environmental standards in the world, without trapping mining projects in a vicious cycle of duplicative reviews.

As Congress faces end-of-the-year priorities, permitting reform remains one of the most impactful actions lawmakers can take to support long-term economic growth and national security.

What’s at Stake: A Stronger Foundation for Mineral Security

BAAJA addresses one of the largest barriers to developing the resources and technologies essential to American prosperity: an outdated and unpredictable permitting process. The stakes extend far beyond Washington. America’s ability to secure the minerals needed to support modern life depends on a permitting system that can keep pace with today’s demands. By improving certainty for project developers, the legislation would strengthen the domestic minerals supply chain and help secure America.

This lame-duck session may be Congress’s final opportunity to advance meaningful permitting reform in the near term.

We urge legislators in both chambers to pass BAAJA now. America’s future can’t afford to wait.