The Hardwood Federation Newsletter

From the Executive Director - Economic Hardwood Industry Relief Still Alive: We are rapidly approaching the dog days of summer, and Congress has already departed for the August recess (the House of Representatives) or is looking at exiting next week…or not, reports vary (the U.S. Senate).  Regardless, there is much work for Congress to address during the relatively few days they will be in session between now and the end of the year.  We are hopeful that one of those things will be passing the $12 billion agriculture relief package that includes funds specifically for the US hardwood industry.  The package was included in the House passed budget resolution last week and is now sitting in the Senate. This is one path to success, but there are a few others if this doesn’t work.  The Federation remains focused on getting this package across the finish line and we have tremendous support from House Agriculture Committee Chair GT Thompson (R-PA) who has repeatedly stressed that the dollars will go to “row crops, specialty crops and hardwood.”

Below is a recap of the Federation’s activities over the last several months:

• Increased man-power by hiring Monument Advocacy to provide additional support, outreach, strategic thinking, and resources.
• Developed a simple funding proposal to provide hardwood processors with bridge funding to ensure viability as markets settle.
• Met multiple times, on a regular basis, with White House and U.S. Department of Agriculture to secure support for our funding proposal.
• Secured the support of House and Senate Agriculture Committee chairmen for the funding proposal.
• Initiated a letter signed by over 450 members of the hardwood industry that was shared with Congress and the White House, educating policy makers and raising awareness of the serious situation.
• Created a website dedicated to our effort targeted at media and Congress to serve as a one stop informational portal.
• Raised public (and further Congressional) awareness by generating media coverage in over 40 markets, amplifying the voice of industry company leaders and employees.
• Successfully including $200 million in funding specifically for the hardwood industry in the Agriculture Supplemental funding currently in play.

The path to our current position has been full of twists and turns, but that, unfortunately, is how things all too often happen in Washington, DC.  Our expectation was never that this would happen quickly, but our promise, one that we have kept, was that we would remain focused and diligent. We will continue to pursue this much needed relief for the industry until the very last day of the current Congressional session. Thank you for the support from our funders, association members, and all those that worked with the media to share the hardwood story.

Eoin Lehane Chosen as Hardwood Federation Board Vice-Chair: The Hardwood Board of Directors unanimously elected Eoin Lehane, CEO of NWH, to Vice-Chair of the Hardwood Federation. Mr. Lehane joined the Executive Committee immediately and will move to the Chair role pending a vote of the Hardwood Federation membership during the winter 2027 meeting.

USEPA Administrator Visits Virginia Hardwood Mill:  EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited R.S. Coleman Lumber Company in Culpeper, Virginia, on Friday as part of the agency’s Great American Comeback initiative, a nationwide effort to highlight and support American manufacturing. During the visit, Administrator Zeldin toured the facility and met with mill workers and industry leaders to hear firsthand about the pressures facing domestic hardwood manufacturers.

“America’s hardwood and lumber industry is critical to our infrastructure as well as our building and manufacturing sectors,” Zeldin said. “I was honored to visit R.S. Coleman Lumber Company today and see firsthand the important work they do to support the northern Virginia economy. Family-owned businesses like this not only create good paying jobs but are part of the fabric of communities like Culpeper.”

The National Hardwood Lumber Association was instrumental in setting up this event. See their press release here.

Deep Dive Into Top Issues

Trade and Uncertainty Continues:  The trade waters have been somewhat calm since the Supreme Court struck down the Trump Administration’s global tariffs on imports to the U.S. in February.  However, that all changed last week with a flurry of announcements and threats from the US Trade Administrator and the White House.  New tariffs or potential trade action was announced each day, causing a mix of confusion, concern, and for some, celebration, in the wider US business community.  Below is a breakdown of White Houe Action:

Monday:  The White House announced a 50% tariff on about $20 billion worth of Canadian imports, equivalent to about 5% of the total coming across the border from our neighbor to the north.  Unless Canada addresses grievances on autos, dairy, and alcoholic beverages, the new levies are set to take effect on August 19.  One of the biggest surprises with this action is that it removes the exemption for USMCA compliant goods and materials which have covered most hardwood products.  The potential tariffs are of particularly impactful for veneer, plywood, and door manufacturers.  However, companies that do business with Canada should carefully examine the lit of HTC codes that fall under the new guidance; not every hardwood  product is covered.

To impose these tariffs, the Administration invoked Section 338 of the 1930 Tariff Act (also known as Smoot-Hawley) which has never been used for this purpose. The Act can be used with discrimination against US goods. Pundits believe there will be legal challenges to the action and if upheld by the courts, could serve as a blue print for further uses of the Act.

Tuesday:  International drug manufacturers were put on notice that they have two years to move production to the US or face a 100% duty staring in August 2028.

Wednesday:  An additional 25% tariff on imports from Brazil took effect under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974.  Wood and wood products are included in goods that are impacted although some specialty wood pulp is excluded. This is on top of already existing tariffs making Brazil on of the more heavily tariffed trading partners.

Thursday:  Duties between 10% and 12.5% on imports from 60 trading partners were announced, effective Friday.  The cited reason for the action was to target countries the don’t have or don’t enforce existing rules forbidding forced labor in their supply chain.  The action announced on Thursday was taken under Section 301. This action effectively replaced the tariffs that were imposed to replace those struck down by the Supreme Court’s earlier in the year…so the third version of tariffs imposed on the same group of countries, each using a different trade authority.

Friday: The President announced the initiation of a Section 301 investigation into fines imposed by the EU on Alphabet Inc.’s Google, leading to new uncertainty in US-EU trade relationship. 

Still outstanding is the 301 investigation into overcapacity production in a number of countries including China, Vietnam, and India.  Announcements may wait for the upcoming US-China meeting in September and November elections take place. All this is to say that the Trump Administration has not softened their position that imposing tariffs is a impactful tool for securing trade and domestic manufacturing goals. It is safe to say that litigation will continue to challenge these policies, including two lawsuits initiated last Friday in opposition to the Thursday 301 tariffs.

Clearly, trying to decipher and simplify everything that is going on is a challenge.  And it is important to remember that tariffs are a two-way street.  While in some cases they can be helpful to industry sectors by keeping subsidized or circumvented products from competing unfairly with US made products, they can also lead to retaliatory tariffs that negatively impact US products.  Finding the perfect balance is tricky…as is navigating the high level of activity around trade policy.

Farm Bill Debate Continues to Drag On:  Congress is working towards renewing the comprehensive statute known as the Farm Bill that underpins our nation’s row crop and dairy programs, as well as nutrition, forestry and many renewable energy initiatives. The last time the law was overhauled and renewed was in 2018; however, row crop and dairy subsidies as well as nutrition programs were addressed last year in H.R. 1, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The current effort is focused on programs that the Federation cares about in the Forestry and Energy Titles left out of  last year’s measure.

Following House passage of the Farm, Food and National Security Act (H.R. 7567) in April, Senator John Boozman (R-AR) released on June 23 the Agricultural Act of 2026—colloquially known as Farm Bill 2.0. Chairman Boozman continues to believe that his panel can markup the measure before the upper chamber leaves town for the August recess (currently scheduled to be August 7). 

The bill largely mirrors the House-passed product that was approved April 30 and includes a number of Hardwood Federation policy priorities. Among them are:

• §  Jobs in the Woods Act: Amends the existing Rural Innovation Stronger Economy (RISE) program to specifically include forestry and forest products. This language essentially captures the Jobs in the Woods Act (JWA), which would provide grants of between $500,000 and $2 milllion to stand up job training and career pathway programs tailored to careers in sawmilling, logging or other forestry and forest products sector jobs. RISE is structured similarly to JWA but currently does not include our sector. This language rectifies that situation and will provide needed workforce development assistance for the entire forest products value chain. 
• §  Wood Innovation Grants: Reauthorizes the Wood Innovation and Community Wood Grant programs. On WIG, the bill reduces the non-federal dollar for dollar matching requirement to 50 percent. It also updates priorities for grants to include the use or retrofitting of existing sawmill facilities, the enhancement of carbon reduction strategies and resilience and economic benefits associated with wood products. On Community Wood, the measure changes the name of the program to the Community Wood Facilities Grant Program. It also increases the federal cost-share from 35 percent to 50 percent for projects and the maximum grant per facility to $5 million. Finally, it increases the maximum size for energy systems eligible to 40 megawatts (current limit is 5 megawatts of nameplate capacity) and doubles its total authorization to $50 million.
• §  Biomass Carbon Neutrality: Includes a binding biomass carbon neutrality provision requiring the Department of Agriculture to assign a greenhouse gas emissions factor of no more than zero to any policy related to combustion of forest-based biomass for energy. This language differs from the existing carbon neutrality provision that is reauthorized every year as part of the appropriations process in that its language is legally binding—meaning that the Department must comply with the directive. The Hardwood Federation, working with other trade associations in the sector, hopes to expand upon this provision to include an “all of government” approach—not just USDA—to this important and legally binding carbon neutrality language.
• §  Biofuel Payments: Reauthorizes the Bioenergy Program for Advanced Biofuels through 2031. This direct payment program incentivizes wood pellet production as “advanced biofuel” is defined in the law to include wood pellets—both those used for the domestic heating market and export pellets. Producers simply report their tonnage to USDA on a quarterly basis and receive fairly lucrative cash payments. 
• §  Forest Inventory and Analysis: Updates the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program to improve national forest data collection and requires, as a data collection method, a timber products output survey and woodland owner survey. The language requires USDA to annually report inventory and analysis of timber within our national forests. Finally, the bill establishes an expert “Blue Ribbon” panel to review FIA to evaluate its effectiveness and provide recommendations for improvement.

The legislation does not address the “renewable biomass” definition in the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program; however, we anticipate that an amendment will be offered during committee markup. In a related development, last week Senators Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representatives Cliff Bentz (R-OR) and Bennie Thompson (D-MS) introduced the Wildfire Reduction Market Expansion Act of 2026. The legislation would expand the definition of “renewable biomass” in the existing statute authorizing the RFS to include forest-based biomass. The current statutory definition generally excludes liquid transportation fuels derived from forest biomass from the renewable liquid fuel mandate.

If these measures move, they will not be taken up individually and passed. Rather they would be offered as an amendment to other larger legislative vehicles like the Farm Bill or government funding legislation that may advance later this year. The Federation team is actively working in support of these bills and any amendment efforts that may materialize. Recall, Rep. Bentz offered the language embodied in his bill as an amendment during House floor consideration of the Farm Bill. That effort failed, but it was a close vote, and we are encouraged by our advocacy and messaging on this critical market development issue. 

In terms of process, the current Farm Bill expires September 30. If the Senate does not move its measure before the August recess, it is likely that an extension of current law will be pursued.  A week before recess, Senate Agriculture Committee Chair John Boozman (R-AR) announced the Committee would mark-up the bill just before departing Washington, teeing up action when they return in September, a positive sign for potential passage. The Federation team is on the scene and working with our Congressional champions. We are hopeful that Congress will find a way to advance a Farm Bill reauthorization measure to the President’s desk by year’s end.