Contact: Jewel Thomasula, [email protected], 202-903-3044
Susan Holmes, [email protected], (202) 329-1553
WASHINGTON, D.C. — November 10, 2026 — The Endangered Species Coalition expressed deep disappointment after the U.S. Senate advanced the Bipartisan Affordability and Jobs Act (S. 5653), which would allow permitting reform legislation to make sweeping changes to environmental protections and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) without the transparent review, hearings, and public debate such major policy changes deserve.
The Endangered Species Coalition recognizes that affordable and reliable electricity is essential for American communities. Access to dependable energy supports families, businesses, hospitals, as well as endangered species recovery facilities, wildlife rehabilitation centers, aquariums, and research institutions, many of which face rising energy costs themselves. However, the Endangered Species Coalition sees little evidence that the bill’s provisions will produce meaningful savings for households and has grave concerns about its impacts on endangered species.
“Americans have repeatedly shown that they value wildlife and support the Endangered Species Act because it works,” said Susan Holmes, Executive Director of the Endangered Species Coalition. “For more than fifty years, the ESA has prevented extinctions and helped recover some of our nation’s most treasured species while supporting a science-based approach to conservation. This legislation sacrifices wildlife protections that have served the American people well for generations based on speculative promises and a rushed legislative process.”
Independent analyses have suggested only modest long-term impacts on consumer electricity bills, while the legislation would immediately weaken safeguards that protect imperiled wildlife and the habitats they depend on.
“This bill is a Trojan horse,” said Jewel Tomasula, National Policy Director for the Endangered Species Coalition. “Americans are being asked to accept immediate rollbacks to wildlife, water, ocean, and land protections in exchange for promises of potential savings that may or may not materialize years down the road. We took a hard look at the bill, and the evidence is remarkably unimpressive. After all of the rhetoric about affordability, the estimated household savings amount to a few dollars per month in 2040, fourteen years from now. Meanwhile, the damage to wildlife protections would begin almost immediately. If lawmakers truly believed these provisions would benefit the public, they would welcome hearings, debate, and scrutiny instead of rushing them through the process and asking Americans to simply take their word for it.”
Among the Endangered Species Coalition’s concerns are provisions that define the standard for the “best available science” in a way that will block the protection of vulnerable whales, marine mammals, and other imperiled species. The bill also expands opportunities for states to assume responsibilities under the Endangered Species Act despite significant questions about whether many states possess the resources, expertise, or commitment to carry out those duties effectively. These decisions would be implemented under regulations established by the Trump administration, which has already proposed and finalized unpopular regulations on the Endangered Species Act.
The Endangered Species Coalition also warned that the legislation would allow highway right-of-way projects to move forward without any consideration of impacts on endangered species. Species such as the Florida Key deer, red wolves, and Pacific Northwest salmon would face increased risks from highway right-of-way projects that would not be reviewed for endangered species impacts at all.
“We may be uncertain whether this bill will save consumers meaningful money in the coming decades, but we are not uncertain about the risks it creates for endangered species,” Tomasula said. “The harms are real, immediate, and potentially irreversible.”
On November 9, 2026, the Senate voted 73-25 to advance the Bipartisan Affordability and Jobs Act, a procedural vote that begins debate on the legislation and is not a vote on final passage. Notably, eight of the nine Democratic members of the Senate committee of jurisdiction opposed the bill, suggesting that if it had moved through the normal committee process, it likely would have emerged in a substantially different form.
Several senators cited concerns about the bill’s environmental provisions. Senator Angela Alsobrooks (D-MD) warned, that “The damage from rolling back environmental protections will be felt for generations. We must restore these safeguards to protect the clean air, clean water, public lands, and wildlife that make our communities and country worth protecting.”
Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) likewise raised concerns about the bill’s impacts on wildlife and environmental protections, stating, “I have said from the start that we need to have confidence that any permitting reform legislation is not going to be weaponized by this or any future administration to single out states and provide giveaways to the oil and gas industries. In its current form, this bill does not satisfy those priorities and raises other serious concerns. This legislation would jeopardize tribal sovereignty through major changes to the National Historic Preservation Act, impact the State of California’s authorities under the Clean Water Act, and constrict federal agencies’ ability to protect vulnerable wildlife under the Endangered Species Act.”
The Endangered Species Coalition urges senators to use the debate process to remove these harmful provisions and ensure that any final legislation meaningfully addresses affordability without sacrificing America’s wildlife and natural heritage.
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The Endangered Species Coalition is a national coalition of 480 member organizations and 540,000+ activists working together to protect and recover at-risk threatened and endangered species and to defend the Endangered Species Act and other wildlife laws and policies.