US Senate Votes 73–25 to Advance Energy Permitting Bill That Would Make Data Centres Pay Their Share

The United States Senate has taken the first big step towards rewriting how America approves energy and infrastructure projects. On Monday, 9 November 2026, senators voted 73–25 to open debate on a sweeping bipartisan bill that would speed up permits for power plants, transmission lines, mines and pipelines — and force large data centres to pay more of the cost of the electricity grid upgrades they need.

The vote was procedural, not final. The bill has not passed, and it is not law. But the size of the majority — 51 Republicans, 21 Democrats and one independent — showed that the measure has real support in both parties, in a Congress that rarely agrees on anything.

The bill is called the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, or BAAJA for short. It is the first major piece of legislation to reach the Senate floor since last week’s midterm elections, in which Democrats won a landslide and took control of both chambers of Congress. How the bill fares in the coming weeks will be an early test of what the new political landscape means for energy, the cost of living, and the huge data centres powering the artificial intelligence boom.

What happened on Monday

The Senate vote on Monday evening was on a motion to proceed — in plain language, a vote on whether to take the bill up and start debating it. To pass, it needed at least 60 votes. It got 73.

Fifty-one Republicans voted in favour, along with 21 Democrats and one independent. On the other side, 23 Democrats voted against the bill, joined by independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and one Republican, Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota. Rounds was the only Republican to vote against moving the bill forward, despite President Donald Trump having endorsed it.

The vote clears the way for a full debate and a series of amendment votes. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, one of the bill’s authors, described what comes next as a “healthy amendment process” — a chance for senators and outside groups to try to change parts of the bill they disagree with before a final vote.

The bill still needs a final vote in the Senate, and then approval by the House of Representatives, before it can go to the president to be signed into law. None of that has happened yet, and passage is far from certain.

What the bill would do

BAAJA was negotiated by four senators: Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, and Republicans Mike Lee of Utah and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia. It is the product of years of work on an issue both parties have talked about for a long time: it takes too long to build things in America.

At its heart, the bill would change the federal system for approving big projects. Here is what that means in practice.

Faster approvals for energy and infrastructure. The bill would shorten and simplify the environmental reviews that power plants, transmission lines, pipelines, mines and other large projects must go through before they can be built. It would set deadlines for government agencies to make decisions, and change how projects are reviewed under long-standing laws including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Supporters say these reviews can currently take years, delaying the power lines and power plants the country needs.

Data centres would pay more. This is the part of the bill that has drawn the most attention. Huge data centres — the warehouse-sized buildings full of computers that run artificial intelligence systems — use enormous amounts of electricity. At the moment, the cost of upgrading the power grid to serve them often falls on ordinary households and businesses through higher electricity bills. The bill would require large data centre operators to pay more of the cost of the grid upgrades needed to serve them. It would also set up protections designed to stop households and other utility customers from being left with the bill if a project fails.

Help for communities near data centres. A package of changes unveiled on Saturday added a new programme at the Department of Energy to help local communities assess the impact of data centres being built near them — on their power supply, their water and their bills.

More say for states and tribes. The same Saturday package added requirements for earlier consultation with tribal nations, and gave states a bigger role in planning transmission lines and overseeing utilities. These changes were designed to answer some of the criticism the bill had faced from environmental and tribal groups — though several of those groups say the changes do not go far enough.

Why data centres are at the centre of the debate

To understand why this bill matters, it helps to understand what has happened in the United States over the past few years.

The race to build artificial intelligence systems has set off a construction boom. Technology companies are building data centres at a pace never seen before, and each one can use as much electricity as a small city. That demand is putting pressure on the power grid, and on electricity prices.

Rising electricity costs were one of the issues that helped Democrats win last week’s midterm elections by a landslide. Voters are angry about their bills, and many blame the data centre boom.

Senator Whitehouse put it bluntly. “Democrats ran and won on affordability and data center accountability, and BAAJA will allow us to start delivering immediately on both of those election promises,” he told Reuters. “We’d be silly not to take this win.”

President Trump has also backed the bill. On Sunday, he highlighted its data centre provisions in a social media post and urged the Senate to pass it. “Remember, China will take any Data Center that we don’t want, and pay lots of money for it,” he wrote.

Around the time of Monday’s vote, Mr Trump was asked whether he would approve wind turbines. “No, I will not approve wind turbines,” he said, according to reports of the exchange — an odd note, given that he was speaking in support of a bill whose backers say it would help all kinds of energy projects, including wind.

Why some people oppose the bill

Not everyone is happy. The bill faces opposition from environmental groups, tribal organisations and some Democrats who say it gives too much away to the oil and gas industry and weakens protections that have been in place for decades.

The Sierra Club, one of America’s largest environmental groups, said the Saturday changes would not resolve its objections. Other environmental groups argue that shortening environmental reviews will make it easier to approve projects that damage the environment, and that the bill undermines tribal sovereignty — the right of Native American tribes to govern their own lands and sacred places.

Author and environmentalist Bill McKibben captured the frustration of critics. “It would be highly ironic if the first action Congress took after an election largely defined by opposition to data centers would be to make it easier to build them,” he said.

Some Democrats in Congress share those concerns. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is expected to become Speaker of the House next year, told Politico that the bill falls short on environmental protections and needs input from House Democrats. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who voted against taking up the bill, said Democrats should use their leverage after the election to negotiate a different deal. “Democrats have a unique opportunity to negotiate a deal that will reduce red tape for all new energy projects to bring down Americans’ energy costs without substantial risk of political interference,” he said in a statement.

There is also a practical argument from critics: the bill was negotiated by four senators and brought to the floor without going through the usual committee process. Its supporters say that is the only way to get anything done in a divided Congress. Its critics say a bill this big deserves a proper hearing.

What supporters say it would achieve

Supporters of the bill argue that it tackles two problems at once: the slow pace of building energy infrastructure, and the unfairness of ordinary people paying for data centres’ power needs.

Jeremy Harrell, chief executive of ClearPath Action, a conservative clean energy advocacy group, said the data centre provisions were a good first step. “The language that’s in BAAJA that’s focused on data centers is a good first step,” he said. “Those are policies where Republicans and Democrats agree.”

Joseph Majkut, who leads the energy security and climate programme at the bipartisan think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the measure was important for both affordability and managing the growth of data centres. “The provisions on data center costs might save the bill,” he said.

Some analyses suggest the bill could also help the environment. The Rhodium Group, a research firm, found that the bill’s transmission and permitting reforms could allow more data centre demand to be served through an increasingly clean electricity grid, rather than through dedicated gas-fired power plants — cutting the greenhouse gas emissions linked to data centres by between 31% and 90%, depending on the mix of power sources.

Senator Whitehouse also said the Trump administration had assured him that a backlog of hundreds of wind energy permit applications stalled at the Department of Defense would begin moving through the approval process — a promise designed to win over Democrats worried that the administration is blocking wind power.

The Data Center Coalition, the industry trade group for data centre operators, has not endorsed the bill.

What happens next

The Senate will now debate the bill and vote on amendments. How many amendments get a vote, and how fast the debate moves, is not yet clear. A final Senate vote is expected in the coming weeks.

But the path to becoming law is uncertain. According to investment firm TD Cowen, the chances of the bill passing have fallen to 25%, down from 40% before the election. The firm said the Democrats’ election victory “likely emboldens voices arguing the bill gives too many concessions to (oil and gas).”

The timing adds another complication. The current Congress leaves office on 3 January 2027, and the incoming Congress will be controlled by Democrats in both chambers. Some Democrats who voted to open debate on Monday have not committed to supporting the bill’s final passage — and the new Democratic majority may want to write its own version of the rules for data centres and energy projects.

Investment bank ING said sweeping federal legislation to rein in data centre construction remains unlikely while Mr Trump is in office, since he and his administration view data centres as essential for the United States to compete with China.

What this means in simple terms

• The Senate voted 73–25 on Monday to start debating a big energy bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act.
• The bill would speed up permits for power plants, power lines, pipelines and mines, which supporters say take far too long to approve.
• Big data centres would pay more towards the cost of upgrading the electricity grid, instead of those costs landing on ordinary households through higher bills.
• The bill has not passed. It still needs a final Senate vote and approval from the House of Representatives.
• Its chances are uncertain. Analysts put the odds of passage at 25%, and the new Democratic Congress taking office in January may want its own approach.

Frequently asked questions

What is BAAJA?

BAAJA stands for the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act. It is a bill in the US Senate that would change how the federal government approves energy and infrastructure projects, making the process faster, and require large data centres to pay more of the cost of the electricity grid upgrades they need.

Has the bill become law?

No. The Senate voted 73–25 on Monday, 9 November 2026, to open debate on the bill. That was a procedural vote, not final passage. The bill still needs a final vote in the Senate and approval by the House of Representatives before it can go to the president.

Why are data centres part of an energy bill?

Data centres that run artificial intelligence systems use huge amounts of electricity. Building them often requires expensive upgrades to the power grid, and those costs have often fallen on ordinary households and businesses through higher electricity bills. The bill would make large data centre operators pay more of those costs.

Who supports the bill and who opposes it?

The bill was negotiated by two Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich, and two Republicans, Senators Mike Lee and Shelley Moore Capito. President Donald Trump has endorsed it. It is opposed by several environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, and by tribal organisations, who say it weakens environmental reviews and tribal rights. Some Democrats, including House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, say it needs stronger environmental protections.

What happens next?

The Senate will debate the bill and vote on amendments, followed by a final vote. If it passes the Senate, it goes to the House of Representatives. The current Congress leaves office on 3 January 2027, so time is short — and the incoming Democratic Congress may prefer to write its own version.

Conclusion

The Senate’s 73–25 vote on Monday was a rare moment of agreement in American politics: a large majority of both parties agreed to at least debate a bill that would change how the country builds energy projects and who pays for the power behind artificial intelligence.

But agreement to debate is not agreement to pass. The bill’s critics — environmental groups, tribal organisations and a significant number of Democrats — say it gives too much to the oil and gas industry and weakens protections that matter. Its supporters say it is the best near-term chance to bring down electricity costs and make the data centre boom fairer for ordinary people.

With a new Democratic Congress taking office in January, the coming weeks will show whether this bill becomes law — or whether it becomes the opening argument in a much longer fight over data centres, energy prices and the future of the American power grid.

Sources

• Reuters — “US Congress gets first post-‘Blue Wave’ crack at data centers with permitting bill” — https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-congress-gets-first-post-blue-wave-crack-data-centers-with-permitting-bill-2026-11-09/
• Reuters — “Democratic US senators see hope for permitting bill ahead of key Senate vote” — https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/democratic-us-senators-see-hope-permitting-bill-ahead-key-senate-vote-2026-11-09/
• Washington Sun — “Senators Advance Bipartisan Permitting Reform. Democrats Were Divided.” — https://www.washingtonsun.com/energy-environment/senate-advanced-bipartisan-permitting-reform
• Heatmap — “Senate Permitting Deal Wins First Vote” — https://heatmap.news/politics/baaja-first-vote
• Zark News — “The Senate Votes 73 to 25 to Open Debate on a Deal to Build Faster” — https://zarknews.com/senate-permitting-reform-vote-baaja/

This article is for general information and education only. It is not legal or financial advice.