Sponsors (3)
The bill speeds and funds forest restoration—reducing wildfire/insect risks and giving states more flexibility—while narrowing environmental review and concentrating decisionmaking in ways that may harm habitats, limit local input, and shift or destabilize local funding.
Rural communities and local governments will get faster, prioritized forest treatments that reduce wildfire and insect-outbreak risk and help preserve timber value.
State governors can directly fund, complete, and reinvest timber-sale proceeds into in-state restoration projects, speeding restoration work and increasing available funding for forest management.
Annual public reporting of acreage treated increases transparency about where and how much restoration/treatment occurs.
Narrowing NEPA alternatives and expanding categorical exclusions reduces environmental review, raising the risk of unexamined harms to water, wildlife, cultural resources, habitat integrity, and increased erosion.
Concentrating authority in the Secretary to designate when full review isn't required limits local and stakeholder input and centralizes decisionmaking over land-use tradeoffs.
Allowing governors to retain and direct timber-sale proceeds concentrates project-selection power at the state executive level, which can limit local input on restoration priorities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Expedites NEPA reviews and broadens categorical exclusions for many insect/disease and hazardous-fuel forest treatments, and requires governors to retain timber-sale proceeds for restoration uses.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by John Thune · Last progress February 6, 2025
Speeds up environmental review for many forest hazardous-fuel reduction and insect-and-disease treatment projects by expanding when the Forest Service can use a categorical exclusion and narrowing required NEPA alternatives, while requiring annual acreage reporting. It also directs that timber-sale proceeds received by a State Governor under a good neighbor agreement be retained and used first for restoration work under that agreement and then for other state restoration work under other good neighbor agreements.