Sponsors (4)
The bill shifts federal building procurement toward U.S. mass timber and requires transparent lifecycle carbon accounting—supporting rural jobs, lower embodied emissions, and wildfire‑management markets—but risks higher costs, procurement delays, added agency burdens, and potential market barriers for some small and tribal forest owners.
Small domestic timber manufacturers and rural workers: federal and military projects prioritizing U.S.-made innovative wood and mass timber will increase demand and support jobs in rural communities and small businesses.
Local governments and rural communities: prioritizing wood from restoration and wildfire‑protection forest management encourages practices that can reduce catastrophic wildfire risk to communities and critical infrastructure.
Taxpayers and state/local governments: a required cradle‑to‑gate whole‑building lifecycle GWP assessment (ISO 14044/14020) will provide transparent, standardized climate-impact data to Congress and the public to inform procurement and policy choices.
Taxpayers: giving maximum practicable preference to U.S. wood products could raise construction costs if domestic mass timber is more expensive or less available, increasing the price of federal projects.
State and local governments (project owners) and federal programs: strict domestic and certification sourcing rules may limit competition and slow project schedules if qualifying suppliers are scarce, delaying federal and military construction projects.
Tribal landowners, small forest owners, and rural communities: narrow interpretation of restoration and wildfire‑protection sourcing criteria or certification requirements could create barriers to market access, excluding intended beneficiaries.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Directs GSA and DOD to prioritize U.S.-produced mass timber and requires a lifecycle greenhouse‑gas assessment for new public buildings using innovative wood products.
Official title: Establish a contracting preference for public buildings that use innovative wood products in the construction of those buildings, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 24, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress March 24, 2025
Directs GSA and the Department of Defense to prioritize using U.S.-produced innovative wood products and mass timber when building, renovating, acquiring, or leasing federal buildings, giving maximum practicable preference to products from U.S. facilities and responsibly sourced U.S. forestlands. Requires the GSA Administrator, working with USDA, to complete a cradle-to-gate whole-building lifecycle greenhouse‑gas (global warming potential) assessment for new public buildings that use innovative wood products (meeting ISO 14044 and 14020 standards) and to report the results to Congress and the public within 180 days of completing the assessment.