Sponsors (3)
The bill speeds and funds more in‑state forest restoration and fuels treatments—reducing wildfire and insect risk and clarifying revenue use—at the cost of reduced environmental review and more concentrated (federal and state) control, which raises risks to habitat, local budgets, and community input.
Rural communities and nearby landowners will see more and faster forest restoration and fuels reduction, lowering insect outbreak and wildfire risk because the bill expedites prioritized treatments and lets states use and reinvest timber-sale revenues to complete projects.
State governments and local economies gain more predictable, usable funding and administrative clarity for restoration: governors can fund and complete restoration tied to timber sales and leftover revenues can be reinvested in in‑state projects, while clarified permissible uses reduce administrative uncertainty.
The bill increases public visibility and oversight of treatments by requiring annual public reporting of acreage treated and clearer rules for use of timber-sale proceeds.
Communities, wildlife, water quality, and cultural sites face greater risk because narrowing NEPA alternatives and expanding categorical exclusions lets projects proceed with less environmental review, increasing chances of habitat loss, erosion, road construction, or harm to cultural resources.
Local governments, stakeholders, and communities will have less voice in which projects proceed because the bill concentrates decisionmaking authority (both federally via the Secretary’s discretion and at the state executive level over proceeds), reducing local input on review and project selection.
Counties and local budgets could lose revenue or face unstable funding because governors retaining timber-sale receipts may reduce distributions previously shared with local governments, and relying on volatile timber revenues can make long-term restoration funding unstable.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Expedites NEPA review and expands categorical exclusions for insect/disease and hazardous-fuel treatments and requires Governors to retain timber-sale proceeds for restoration uses.
Official title: Amend the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 to require the Secretary of Agriculture to expedite hazardous fuel or insect and disease risk reduction projects on certain National Forest System land, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by John Thune · Last progress February 6, 2025
Directs the Forest Service to speed up National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review for hazardous-fuel reduction and insect-and-disease risk-reduction projects in designated treatment areas, expands where a categorical exclusion can be used, narrows required alternatives analysis for many projects, and requires annual public reporting of acreage treated. It also changes how timber sale proceeds from Good Neighbor Authority projects are handled: Governors must retain those proceeds to pay for restoration services under the agreement first, and then use any remaining funds for other authorized restoration work in the State.