Sponsors (3)
The bill directs significantly more federal support to expand and modernize rural forest‑products manufacturing—broadening who can apply and enabling larger projects—while raising taxpayer costs, increasing competition that may favor better‑resourced operators, and narrowing some feedstock and program priorities.
Rural communities and small wood-product businesses will have access to larger grants and up to 50% federal cost‑share to build or retrofit facilities, lowering capital barriers and encouraging investment.
Rural communities and facility owners can pursue larger, more productive projects because the eligible thermal capacity limit is raised to 15 MW, enabling bigger manufacturing or processing facilities.
Rural communities and state governments gain multi-year planning certainty from reauthorizing $50 million annually through 2030, supporting longer-term investment and program continuity.
Taxpayers will face higher federal outlays because the bill authorizes roughly $50 million more per year, representing a substantial increase in annual program spending.
Smaller operators, family businesses, and some farmers are likely to lose out as larger grants, a higher federal share, and expanded eligible project types increase competition and tend to advantage better‑resourced applicants.
Rural communities and small businesses that rely on non‑forest woody feedstocks may be excluded or disadvantaged because eligibility is narrowed toward primarily forest biomass, reducing program flexibility.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Refocuses a USDA grant program to fund construction, use, or retrofitting of forest products manufacturing facilities using primarily forest biomass and authorizes $50M/year for FY2026–2030.
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Jeanne Shaheen · Last progress June 26, 2025
Creates a retooled USDA grant program to fund construction, use, or retrofitting of forest products manufacturing facilities that primarily use forest biomass, and authorizes $50 million per year for fiscal years 2026–2030 with a $5 million cap per project. It narrows eligible feedstock language to focus on forest biomass, raises project size and cost‑share limits, and changes program names and eligibility to emphasize forest products manufacturing rather than sawmills or broader energy/wood innovation activities. Also updates a related statutory provision to expand eligible projects from retrofitting existing sawmills to include construction and new facility uses for forest products manufacturing; no new agencies or emergency authorities are created, and detailed implementation rules remain with the administering agency under the existing statute.