The Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association (PMA) joined the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and more than 100 other state and national organizations representing businesses, manufacturers, and energy producers in calling for passage of a bipartisan permitting reform bill pending in Congress.
“Our organizations applaud the hard work that the bipartisan negotiators have done to find practical solutions to the challenges our industry faces in permitting projects to expand and grow manufacturing,” they wrote in an Oct. 13 letter sent to U.S. Senate leadership.
“It is a testament to our democracy that leaders from both parties can come together to seek common ground and address the major challenges that are facing our industry in the United States,” wrote the groups. “Reforming our permitting processes will make it easier and more cost-efficient for manufacturers to get shovels in the ground on job-creating projects.”
The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, S. 5653, introduced on Sept. 30 by a bipartisan contingent, would fix the “nation’s broken permitting system,” which affects projects in every industry and of every energy source, and directly contributing to the rising cost of electricity to homeowners and businesses, the groups said.
“Right now, in the United States, it takes 80 percent longer to get a permit authorized for a manufacturing facility than it does in any other free market economy,” according to their letter.
Permitting delays cost manufacturers at least $8 billion every year, according to NAM, PMA, and their colleagues.
“That’s money not being spent on hiring new workers, expanding shop floors, or going back into the local economy,” they wrote. “Manufacturers are ready to build in America; we just need the certainty and a modernized permitting process to make it happen.”
Once passed by the Senate, the organizations urged the U.S. House of Representatives to also “move expeditiously” to help get the bill enacted. “Manufacturers cannot afford inaction,” they wrote.