Senate Republicans are optimistic about bipartisanship beyond healthcare next year, despite the looming midterm elections, but some of President Donald Trump’s latest actions could thwart the appetite for deal-making.

The administration is dismantling a federal climate center and halting construction of offshore wind projects, drawing ire from Democrats who say the moves intentionally undercut clean energy and jeopardize avenues to bipartisan deals on government funding and energy permitting reform to streamline new power projects.  

Congress returns next week from a two-week holiday recess and will have just a few working weeks to avert another shutdown ahead of the Jan. 30, 2026, deadline to fund the government.

Both of Colorado’s Democratic senators, whose state is home to the National Center for Atmospheric Research, which the White House says harbors the “largest sources of climate alarmism in the country,” are putting up procedural roadblocks to advancing a tranche of appropriations bills that comprise the annual 12-bill budget over efforts to dismantle the center.

Sens. Michael Bennet, D-CO, who is running for governor in the Centennial State next year, and John Hickenlooper, D-CO, said they will “pull every lever available to do what is right for Colorado” and combat “Trump’s rampage.”

“His reckless decision to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research will have lasting, devastating impacts across the country,” they said in a joint statement. “We are holding the Senate’s appropriations package to demand full funding for NCAR.”

And key Senate Democrats are declaring that bipartisan talks on accelerating environmental reviews for energy and infrastructure projects, known as permitting reform, are all but dead after the Interior Department paused leases for five offshore wind projects along the East Coast in the Atlantic Ocean over national security concerns. The projects had already been approved and were under construction.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-SD, named energy permitting, among other things, as a bright spot for election-year legislating in a recent interview with the Washington Examiner, saying it could buttress the GOP’s economic message beyond partisan tensions over expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies, but also garner Democratic support. A bipartisan deal on the subject has for years eluded lawmakers, including previous efforts under the Biden administration.

But Sens. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, the top Democrats on the energy and environmental committees, cited a “reckless and vindictive assault on wind energy” by Trump that leaves “no path to permitting reform.”

“There was a deal to be had that would have taken politics out of permitting, made the process faster and more efficient, and streamlined grid infrastructure improvements nationwide,” they said in a joint statement. “But any deal would have to be administered by the Trump administration. Its reckless and vindictive assault on wind energy doesn’t just undermine one of our cheapest, cleanest power sources, it wrecks the trust needed with the executive branch for bipartisan permitting reform.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about possible implications of the administration’s actions and whether its decisions on NCAR and the wind projects were final.

White House budget chief Russell Vought has assailed NCAR, run by colleges and universities on behalf of the National Science Foundation, as “one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” The center was founded in 1960 and researches climate change and extreme weather. Vought posted in a social media statement that a “comprehensive review is underway” and that “vital activities such as weather research will be moved to another entity or location.”

Democrats, including lawmakers in Congress and Gov. Jared Polis, D-CO, say the administration lacks the legal authority to dismantle the center.

The offshore wind projects were paused due to national security concerns about massive turbine blades and support towers, which the administration argued could obscure nearby targets and create false ones through radar interference. Democrats have also questioned the legality of pausing the projects’ approvals.

“Today’s action addresses emerging national security risks, including the rapid evolution of the relevant adversary technologies, and the vulnerabilities created by large-scale offshore wind projects with proximity near our east coast population centers,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a recent statement. “The Trump administration will always prioritize the security of the American people.”

The decision means that, at least for the time being, recent progress on permitting reform will be at a standstill.

Before leaving for recess earlier this month, the GOP-led House passed the Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act with the help of nearly a dozen Democrats.