WASHINGTON — Dozens of environmental, farmer and community groups today sent a letter urging Congressional leaders to oppose anti-environmental permitting legislation. The Senate will vote on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) this afternoon.

The groups’ letter opposes this dangerous legislation which would exacerbate water pollution from industrial agriculture, eviscerate effective oversight of industrial agriculture polluters, and fast-track industry expansion. Agriculture is the nation’s leading polluter of rivers and lakes; groups warn that the legislation would worsen already lenient pollution controls by eliminating core Clean Water Act safeguards, narrowing environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act, and tying regulators’ hands.

The letter is led by Food & Water Watch, Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment, Center for Food Safety, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Family Farm Coalition, and Waterkeeper Alliance Inc.

Food & Water Watch Food Policy Director Rebecca Wolf said:

“This permitting legislation is a giveaway to America’s most polluting industries. By loosening bedrock environmental laws, this bill will fast-track toxic industrial agriculture pollution nationwide. Factory farms are already wreaking havoc on our health, our communities and our water — this would make it much worse. Congress must stop this cynical industry ploy.”

Patty Lovera of the Campaign for Family Farms and the Environment said: “For decades, communities across the country have suffered with the environmental and public health impacts allowed under the ineffective permitting system for factory farms. Creating even more loopholes for corporate-controlled factory farms under the guise of permitting reform is the wrong approach.”

Center for Food Safety Legislative and Policy Coordinator Reagan Ferris said: “While advertised as a means of increasing access to cheap energy and job opportunities, BAAJA would ultimately benefit major polluters like fossil fuel developers and factory farm operators at the expense of the vulnerable communities, individuals, and species. Currently, states and Tribes have the right to oppose or place conditions on federal pollutant discharge permits that could impact their territory’s water quality. Under BAAJA, they would only be allowed to place conditions that would be ‘least burdensome,’ for the permit holder. Protecting clean water is not a burden, it is an essential for life itself.”

Ben Lilliston, Director of Climate and Rural Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said: “Rural communities around the country are facing the impacts of air and water pollution tied to large-scale factory farms – and these issues surfaced in the elections last week across many states. BAAJA threatens to weaken bedrock environmental protections that safeguard rural communities, while it could lock in significant agriculture greenhouse gas emissions into the future.”

Tim Gibbons with the National Family Farm Coalition said: “Our federal government should be strengthening rules to protect our land, water, natural resources and property rights from corporate industrial livestock operations, not weakening them. Family farmers depend on the Clean Water Act to protect the health of their families, their communities, and the wells and waterways they and their livestock depend on for safe drinking water. Our elected Representatives should dismiss the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA) of 2026 that threatens those protections.”

Kelly Hunter Foster, Waterkeeper Alliance Senior Attorney said: “Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and corporate slaughterhouses are major sources of water pollution, threatening drinking water, fisheries, and recreational waters nationwide. Rather than weaken environmental laws to fast-track data center energy projects, we should fully implement protections like the federal Clean Water Act. It is reckless to weaken safeguards against industrial pollution for an industry that poses its own serious threats to our water resources and communities.”