Sponsors (4)
Official title: Expand research relating to the use of forest products, to support research and technologies of the Forest Service, and to establish a mass timber science and education program to respond to the emerging research needs of architects, developers, and the forest products industry.
Introduced July 31, 2025 by Martin Heinrich · Last progress July 31, 2025
The bill aims to accelerate commercialization, mass‑timber research, and new rural markets—creating jobs and stronger tech transfer—but does so with modest federal spending and funding reallocations that risk shifting research priorities, excluding some small firms, and increasing pressure on forest biomass extraction without careful safeguards.
Rural communities, forest-products workers, and small manufacturers gain new markets and jobs by turning low-value wood into mass timber and other manufacturable products.
Researchers and small firms benefit from a new Office of Technology Transfer and a Chief Commercialization Officer plus required performance reporting, improving the Forest Service's ability to move inventions into commercial use.
Small businesses can access Forest Service facilities, equipment, and vouchers to accelerate product development and commercialization.
Taxpayers face added federal cost and reallocated funding: the bill authorizes roughly $5 million per year to implement the program and allows up to $4 million from Forest Service research funds, increasing expenditures and reducing funds available for other research priorities.
Emphasis on using forest biomass for fuels risks encouraging greater extraction of low‑value wood, which could harm ecosystems or increase wildfire risk if not tightly managed with safeguards.
Expanding patenting and commercialization focus — and industry‑relevant research — could shift Forest Service scientists toward revenue‑generating projects and away from public‑good, community, or ecological research priorities.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Forest Service Office of Technology Transfer and CCO, expands research on using low-value wood for products and renewable fuels, and establishes a Mass Timber Science and Education Program with up to $4M from research funds.
Directs the Department of Agriculture, working with the Department of Energy, to expand Forest Service research and technology transfer around using low- or no-commercial-value wood from forest-management activities as feedstock for new products and renewable fuels (including sustainable aviation fuel). Creates an Office of Technology Transfer in the Forest Service with a Chief Commercialization Officer and a Technology Transfer Working Group to commercialize Forest Service inventions and coordinate patenting, private-sector engagement, and interagency technology-transfer activities. Establishes a Mass Timber Science and Education Program to support research, education, curriculum development, stakeholder engagement, and dissemination on mass timber and tall wood buildings, and allows up to $4 million of Forest Service research funds (excluding FIA) to be used for that program.