Sponsors (4)
The bill shifts federal building procurement toward U.S.-made engineered wood and mass timber to support rural jobs and lower embodied carbon, but does so at the risk of higher taxpayer costs, potential project delays, added agency burden, and possible exclusion of smaller or tribal suppliers.
Domestic timber manufacturers and rural communities will see increased demand and job-support because federal and military building projects will prioritize U.S.-made innovative wood and mass timber.
Taxpayers and local governments may see lower lifecycle carbon in public buildings because engineered wood and mass timber can reduce embodied carbon compared with some conventional materials.
Local governments and rural communities could benefit from reduced catastrophic wildfire risk over time because the bill prioritizes products sourced from restoration and wildfire‑protection forest management, encouraging those practices.
Taxpayers may face higher construction costs because giving maximum practicable preference to U.S. wood products could increase prices or reduce availability of mass timber relative to other materials or foreign suppliers.
State and local governments could experience project delays and reduced competition because strict domestic and certification sourcing rules may leave few qualifying suppliers and slow federal and military construction schedules.
Smaller forest owners, tribes, and some rural communities risk being shut out of markets if restoration and wildfire‑protection sourcing criteria or certification requirements are interpreted narrowly, limiting intended beneficiaries' access.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires GSA and DoD to prioritize domestically produced mass timber and innovative wood products for federal buildings and mandates a cradle-to-gate GWP lifecycle assessment within 180 days.
Introduced March 24, 2025 by Jeff Merkley · Last progress March 24, 2025
Directs the GSA Administrator and the Secretary of Defense to give procurement preference to domestically produced innovative wood products and mass timber when constructing, altering, acquiring, or leasing federal public buildings, with a focus on products from U.S. facilities and U.S. forestlands harvested from “responsible sources.” Requires the GSA Administrator, in consultation with USDA, to complete a cradle-to-gate whole-building lifecycle assessment measuring global warming potential for new federal buildings that use innovative wood products, following ISO 14044 and 14020, within 180 days of enactment and to report the results to Congress and the public within 180 days after completing the assessment. The law is procedural and procurement-focused: it sets priorities and requires an environmental lifecycle study, but it does not appropriate funds or create new grant programs. Definitions for key terms are provided by cross-reference to existing statutory definitions.