The Senate is preparing to begin voting on a permitting bill that would have serious consequences for outdoor recreation.
If you want to protect important landscapes like Bears Ears and the Boundary Waters, as well as recreation access, clean water, and the public process, take two minutes to write your lawmakers.
Last week, we shared our concerns with a major permitting bill that Congress is working on called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA). While the bill has bipartisan support and offers important benefits, including the potential to speed up renewable energy development by streamlining the permitting process, the package currently contains some very concerning language that would have serious implications for outdoor recreation access and protecting public lands and waters.
As written, BAAJA would essentially lock in a wide range of permitted projects, even if they cause serious damage to outdoor recreation or to public lands and waters, without providing sufficient recourse for the public to challenge those decisions. This has consequences for landscapes like Bears Ears and Boundary Waters. If permits are issued for developing those landscapes, there would be no going back.
The bill would also cause serious issues for clean water, which our partners American Whitewater and Surfrider have explained in more detail. One significant recreation concern is maintaining states’ ability to protect river flows below hydropower projects, including recreational dam releases that allow for boating and other forms of river recreation.
The Senate will begin voting as soon as today and constituent voices are extremely important right now. There is time to improve the bill, either before the end of this Congress or in the next Congress, but the current version would have intensely damaging effects on outdoor recreation and the public lands and waters we love.
We’ve made it easy to drop a line to your lawmakers and express your concerns–please reach out today.
Thanks,
