WASHINGTON— More than 120 organizations urged Congress today to reject the Clean Water Act provisions in the “Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026,” introduced by Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Mike Lee (R-Utah).

The bill includes sweeping provisions that will eviscerate core provisions of the Clean Water Act meant to protect the nation’s rivers, streams, wetlands and drinking water.

“It’s beyond ridiculous to propose such regressive legislation at a time when we should be strengthening protections for clean water,” said J.W. Glass, senior EPA policy specialist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Communities across the country are struggling with PFAS contamination and witnessing wetlands and rivers dry up before their very eyes. It’s a disgrace to ignore these real problems while allowing corporate interest to build data centers, pipelines and other polluting projects with little oversight.”

The legislation would eviscerate the Section 401 certification process, a key Clean Water Act authority used by states and Tribes to protect their communities from water pollution and other harms from pipelines, transmission lines, and other large scale industrial development.

This bill goes even further than the Trump administration’s Section 401 certification rule by both restricting what states and Tribes may consider when reviewing a project and imposing a “clear and convincing evidence” burden on states to prove that any condition or objection is warranted.

The proposal also expands the broken nationwide and general permitting schemes that authorize the destruction of wetlands, streams and other waterbodies in an effort to fast-track construction of data centers and other industrial infrastructure.

The bill also includes provisions that will curtail environmental oversight and review by restricting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to veto destructive projects such as the Pebble Mine in Alaska, while locking in pollutant discharge permits for decade-intervals that bar consideration of new technology, new water quality standards, and emerging toxics like PFAS.