Senator Alan Armstrong (R-Oklahoma) joins David Gura and Christina Ruffini on Bloomberg This Weekend and says permitting reform—not additional federal spending—is the most effective way to lower housing and energy costs, arguing regulatory delays have created infrastructure bottlenecks that drive up prices for consumers.
--------
Watch Bloomberg Radio LIVE on YouTube
Weekdays 7am-6pm ET
Saturday & Sunday 7am-10am ET
WATCH HERE: http://bit.ly/3vTiACF
Follow us on X: / bloombergradio
Subscribe to our Podcasts:
Bloomberg Daybreak: http://bit.ly/3DWYoAN
Bloomberg Surveillance: htt...
What Alan Armstrong said
Written from the verified transcript and checked against it. Every figure links to the moment it was said.
Senator Alan Armstrong, a former Williams Companies executive filling a short term in the Senate, said President Trump's refusal to sign the housing bill until the SAVE Act passes was a surprise but a clear statement of the president's priorities. Armstrong declined to detail the private Senate lunch with Trump, but said such closed-door talks should happen more often. He argued permitting reform is more important than housing, calling the current process a tax on the economy that raises consumer costs. He noted the housing bill's NEPA waivers are a temporary fix, similar to the CHIPS Act. Armstrong said his primary reason for taking the Senate role was to highlight how permitting processes raise prices, and that incumbent pipeline owners like his former company benefit from barriers to new construction. He explained retail gasoline prices naturally lag oil price drops due to supply chain transit times, and defended the president's frustration while noting Energy Secretary Chris Wright understands the lag. Armstrong supported investing in nuclear innovation, including fusion, and criticized the old large-reactor model as expensive and risky, citing Southern Company's Vogtle project. He expressed surprise at how low national interest ranks in partisan debates ahead of the midterms.
Key takeaways
Armstrong said permitting reform is more important than the housing bill and is a 'huge tax against our economy' that holds the nation back.
He declined to comment on what transpired in the Senate lunch with Trump, citing the value of private conversations.
He endorsed investing in nuclear innovation, including fusion, while calling the old large-reactor model 'very expensive, very risky,' citing the Vogtle project.
0:50What did you hear from the president about what he wants to have happen here for that bill to get signed into law?
1:52Are you disappointed that the bill didn't get passed?
3:00What are you hearing from your constituents about the need for progress on permitting reform, but just on affordable housing more broadly?
4:33What are you trying to get Washington to do from somebody who's been out there in the trenches where bottom lines and profits do actually matter?
8:02Do you wanna go over to the White House and maybe let him know that this is how this goes?
8:56Is that where the administration, where the country should be focusing when it comes to new forms of energy, or are there quicker, simpler ways to get that grid up and running faster?
11:31... few months into your tenure, that's not gonna be a very long tenure, what surprised you about the place in terms of how difficult it is to make progress, how hard it is to get advancements on the issue or the issues that you care about?
Senate reversed course on limiting President Trump's power in the Iran war in an effort to placate the president after an extremely tense lunch on Capitol Hill. Trump walked into the building and has already sparked frustration on his part and had a tense meeting, a tense luncheon there on Capitol Hill, post on social media he refused to sign a housing bill that was passed by a near unanimous vote until his voting act also passes Congress. Senator Allen Armstrong of Oklahoma was at that Senate Republican lunch with the president. We asked him about the housing bill as well as the president's interactions with lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
I think that was obviously a surprise to everybody and I think caught everybody off guard there a little bit. I think, you know, clearly the president's trying to make a strong statement about how important the SAVE Act is to him personally, and I think he certainly got his point across on that.
There was this meeting that followed with the president, and I would love your readout on somewhat what transpired there. We've heard that Senator Cassidy was the subject of a great deal of anger from the president. What was the mood in that room? What did you hear from the president about what he wants to have happen here for that bill to get signed into law?
Yeah, you know, I think he just continues to express the importance of getting our voting here something that everybody can trust and be dependent on. And I think that's obviously very important to him, but, you know, I'm not gonna make any comments on what exactly went on in the room, but obviously that's very important to the president. He continues to press on that. But, you know, it's a private conversation for good reason, and I think we should have more, frankly. I think there ought to be more of those private conversations and working out differences rather than letting them work their way out into the public.
You said the president got his point across that this voting act is really important to him, but this housing act was really important to Republicans, especially Republicans who are trying to run in tight races come the fall, because one of the things that voters say over and over again when asked they're focused on is these kitchen table issues, and housing has gotten so expensive in this country. Are you disappointed that the bill didn't get passed?
Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of important work that we need to be doing. Permitting reform is obviously something I think is actually more important than any of those issues that we've been talking about, because it's something that's really holding our nation back. It's a huge tax against our economy, and it really is very crucial to our future to be able to get back to building things here with certainty, with lower costs, and being able to put capital to work in our country to power our future. And so I would just say, yes, there's a lot of important things that need to get done, and this is a place where people obviously express what they think is most important to them. And certainly that's what the president was doing.
Tell us a bit what you've heard from your constituents, from Oklahomans, about housing in particular. So Christine, you bring up the fact that affordability is such a big issue here going into the midterms. What are you hearing from your constituents about the need for progress on permitting reform, but just on affordable housing more broadly?
Yeah, you know, I would say that's not a front and center issue in Oklahoma. We have a very low cost of living in Oklahoma, and our governor has done a great job of making Oklahoma a place of low cost of living. Things like blocking infrastructure and raising people's utility cost are actually things that we can do without spending money, without making tax breaks. One of the things I think is most interesting to me about the housing bill is that in the housing bill, some of the key elements of it, we're doing NEPA waivers. So in other words, waiving the NEPA laws that is all about our permitting reform. You saw that same thing in the CHIPS Act. So rather than actually fixing the problem and dealing with permitting reform, we keep putting on gloves to fix a leaky pipe as it relates to our permitting process. And to me, that was a really stark issue for me on the housing bill. But even getting affordable housing is being impacted by how litigated all of our permitting processes have become here in the US.
Well, I know another big cost is energy, and you are trying to address that and some of these issues in a new bill you're proposing. You wanna run us through that? I mean, I know you have a lot of experience in the private sector when it comes to energy. What are you trying to get Washington to do from somebody who's been out there in the trenches where bottom lines and profits do actually matter?
9 more exchanges in this transcript
Sign in free to read the rest of this interview. No card required.
Armstrong, A. (2026, June 27). Sen. Armstrong Says Permitting Is Key to Lower Energy Costs [Interview transcript]. Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI. https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044891/
MLA
Alan Armstrong. "Sen. Armstrong Says Permitting Is Key to Lower Energy Costs." Bloomberg Podcasts, 27 Jun. 2026. Transcript, CEOInterviews.AI, https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044891/.
BibTeX
@misc{armstrong2026_1044891,
author = {Alan Armstrong},
title = {Sen. Armstrong Says Permitting Is Key to Lower Energy Costs},
howpublished = {Interview transcript, Bloomberg Podcasts. CEOInterviews.AI},
year = {2026},
month = {jun},
url = {https://ceointerviews.ai/interview/1044891/},
note = {Speaker-attributed transcript with timestamps}
}
