Monday, November 9, 2026
President Trump urged every senator to vote yes on Monday as the Senate prepared to take the first floor vote on his affordability and jobs bill, the permitting overhaul he says will cut energy costs for American families. In a post on Truth Social, the president called on all senators to back the American Affordability and Jobs Act, S. 5653, on the day the Senate votes at about 5:30 p.m. Eastern on whether to open debate on it — the bill’s first test on the Senate floor.
Trump called the bill a big win for U.S. energy independence and dominance. He said it will build pipelines, mines and power plants faster than ever, lower energy costs for American families and create high-paying jobs. He also said the bill codifies his Ratepayer Protection Pledge, so that data centers build and pay for their own electricity instead of the cost landing on households. His case is that America’s permitting system has kept the country from building the energy it needs — and that this bill ends that, on terms that protect the families who pay the power bills.
The bill, formally the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, was introduced on September 30 by the four senators who lead the two committees overseeing energy and the environment: Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Mike Lee of Utah, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico — the chairs and ranking members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works committees. The 417-page measure overhauls how the federal government permits and reviews energy and infrastructure projects, rewriting parts of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act to speed approvals for pipelines, power plants, mines, transmission lines and data centers.
Monday’s vote is a procedural step, not final passage. The Senate returns at 3 p.m. Eastern and votes at about 5:30 p.m. Eastern on cloture on the motion to proceed — on whether to open debate at all. The vote is taken on H.R. 2347, an unrelated House-passed bill the Senate is using as the legislative vehicle to carry the package. Ending debate on the motion takes 60 votes, so the bill needs support from both parties to move.
If the motion carries, the Senate will debate the bill and then vote on passing it. Only after Senate passage does the bill go to the House, which has set no date for it; from there it would go to the president. All of this is happening in the lame-duck session — the current Congress is deciding the bill before the new Congress is sworn in on January 3, 2027.
The bill also has organized opposition. A coalition of Tribal nations and allied groups opposes it, saying its Title III rewrites Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act and narrows the consultation Tribes are owed over sacred places. Nine Democratic state attorneys general have formally opposed the bill without amendments. Supporters, including the Taxpayers Protection Alliance and energy-industry groups, are urging a yes vote and call the package the closest permitting reform has ever come to passage. The four sponsors, from both parties, pushed the bill through October and say they are confident of its eventual passage.
ProfiloPolitics has followed this fight since the bill’s energy-permitting provisions first drew their battle lines in the Senate, in our earlier coverage of the package Senator Capito is carrying. Monday’s vote is the first time the full Senate weighs in on it.
What this means: for ordinary families, the promise the bill’s backers are making is about the monthly power bill and the pay packet. Faster permits for pipelines, mines, power plants and transmission are meant, its supporters say, to bring more energy supply online and push energy costs down, while the building itself creates high-paying jobs. The Ratepayer Protection Pledge written into the bill would make data centers — among the fastest-growing users of electricity — build and pay for their own power, instead of households carrying that cost in their bills. The opponents’ stated concern is the other side of the same trade: that faster approvals come at the cost of the consultation Tribes are owed and of the environmental safeguards that slow projects down today. Monday’s 60-vote test decides whether the bill gets its debate at all.
— Update: Tuesday, November 10, 2026 —
The Senate voted 62-21 on Tuesday night to open debate on the bill, approving the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, the House-passed vehicle for the permitting package, in the second procedural vote of the week. The vote — Roll Call Vote 258 — followed Monday's 73-25 vote to advance the motion to proceed, and it clears the way for debate and amendments. It is not final passage: the bill still needs a vote to pass the Senate, and no vote on passage has been scheduled. Senators are now filing amendments to the package, which pairs the energy-permitting overhaul with the American Affordability and Jobs Act's cost-of-living measures.