A bipartisan bill introduced in the U.S. House would require federal buildings to use domestic timber and steer duties collected on Canadian softwood lumber into loan funds for home building with U.S. wood, according to a summary released by its sponsor.
The Strong American Wood Act, H.R. 10906, was introduced on Thursday by Rep. Bruce Westerman, an Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a Washington Democrat. It was referred to nine committees, led by Ways and Means. The full text has not yet been published.
The bill would remove Buy American exemptions for federal purchases that could be met with domestic forest products and set a domestic timber requirement for all federal building components, according to the summary. Tariff and countervailing duty collections on Canadian softwood lumber would go to revolving loan funds to promote new homes built with domestic wood.
It would also remove tariffs on mill machinery not made in the U.S., require secondary inspections of imported wood and wood-look-alike products so that importers disclose their full chemical inputs, and recognize domestic pulp and paper, hardwood and softwood supply chains as critical national security materials. Other provisions cover a carbon storage tax credit for biochar, woody biomass in transportation fuels, full expensing of reforestation after natural disasters and a statutory response to the European Union's deforestation regulation.
“The bottom line is, if we want to see more trees and healthier forests, we must be investing in the products made from them,” Westerman wrote in a column on Sunday. The summary says the U.S. imports about $47 billion a year in wood, pulp and paper products. The National Hardwood Lumber Association said the bill gets Washington “buying American wood products instead of foreign-made knockoffs.”