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119-hr-10906119th CongressWALLET

Strong American Wood Act

Sponsored By: Representative Westerman, Bruce [R-AR-4]

Introduced

Summary

Boost U.S. timber production and wood-based climate incentives. This bill creates a Treasury Build America Fund and large grants to promote single-family homes built with U.S. timber, adds a mass timber tax credit, and expands biomass and carbon capture tax rules.

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  • Families and homebuyers: State revolving funds provide repayable loans and guarantees for single-family homes built primarily with domestic timber that are sold to households with income ≤250% of area median and priced at or below the metropolitan median.
  • States, builders, and the timber industry: The Build America Fund is seeded by transfers equal to 95% of specified softwood lumber duties and awards first-time grants of $100 million to $200 million to establish revolving housing funds.
  • Clean-energy and wood-product projects: The bill treats "solid carbon capture facilities" as eligible under Section 45Q and creates a mass timber building credit of $85 per metric ton stored, with a potential 5x increase if prevailing-wage and apprenticeship rules are met.

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Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

8 provisions identified: 4 benefits, 0 costs, 4 mixed.

Larger reforestation tax deductions

If enacted, the bill would raise existing reforestation expensing limits and create a new disaster-related reforestation deduction. The specified expensing limits would increase to $30,000 and $15,000 and would be inflation adjusted for tax years after 2026. A new election-based disaster reforestation deduction would cap per-property deductions at $500,000 ($250,000 MFS) and aggregate deductions at $1,000,000 ($500,000 MFS), with inflation indexing beginning in 2026. The new deduction would apply to replanting uncut timber damaged by a qualified natural disaster and generally be subject to 10-year recapture rules if the property is disposed of.

New tax and grants for biomass

If enacted, the bill would expand tax incentives and create grant programs for biomass and carbon capture. Solid carbon capture would be eligible for the section 45Q credit for carbon captured after enactment. Transportation fuel from biomass would use a zero emissions rate when calculating the Clean Fuel Production Credit for fuel made after enactment. Qualifying property at certain biomass facilities built after enactment would be eligible for a 30 percent investment tax credit, and production-credit eligibility for some biomass facilities would be extended. The bill would fund regional biochar demonstrations and require a woody-biomass chemical study with a follow-on competitive grant program, subject to appropriations and program limits.

Higher air-particle limit and study

If enacted, the bill would require EPA to raise the national primary PM2.5 standard from 9 to 12 micrograms per cubic meter within 90 days of enactment. The bill would also direct EPA to study PM2.5 emissions from sawmills, pulp mills, and paper mills, including whether mill operations reduce wildfire rates, and to report to Congress after the study. The bill also requires EPA to periodically review hazardous air pollutant standards with regard to new control technologies.

Big tax credit for mass timber

If enacted, this bill would create a mass timber tax credit of $85 per metric ton of CO2 stored in load-bearing mass timber parts. Buildings must be placed in service for tax years after December 31, 2026 and begin construction before January 1, 2036. The credit would be multiplied by five if construction begins at least 60 days after Labor Department guidance and the project meets prevailing wage and apprenticeship rules. The wood must be produced in the United States, and the credit is reduced for tax-exempt bond financing and unavailable to certain foreign-linked entities.

Grants for timber-built homes

If enacted, the bill would create a Treasury Build America Fund funded largely by transfers of certain softwood lumber import duties. Ninety-five percent of Fund deposits would finance competitive grants to State housing finance agencies that set up revolving funds for repayable loans, loan guarantees, and credit enhancements for single-family homes built with domestic structural lumber. First-time grants would range from $100 million to $200 million; later grants would range from $20 million to $50 million and require demonstrated outcomes and a five-year interval. Eligible homes would be sold to buyers with household income at or below 250 percent of area median income and priced no higher than the local median sales price.

New rules for plant and biomass products

If enacted, the bill would amend FIFRA to exclude certain plant biostimulants and functionally identical synthetic compounds from the definition of plant regulator and would add definitions for plant biostimulant, nutritional chemical, and vitamin hormone product. The bill would require EPA to revise related regulations within 120 days. It would also expand the Clean Air Act definition of renewable biomass to include listed mill residues and certain trees, shrubs, and vegetation from specified lands and within 100 feet of buildings or the wildland-urban interface.

Stricter Buy America rules for wood

If enacted, the bill would expand Buy America construction-material rules to explicitly cover hardwood and softwood lumber and products, pulp, paper, and engineered wood. The bill would also prohibit federal agencies from buying covered wood or products unless the timber was harvested and processed solely in the United States and finished products were fully processed, assembled, and treated in the United States and ready for end use. The rules would be effective on enactment and could give U.S. suppliers more federal sales while narrowing sourcing options for agencies and contractors.

Tariffs and tariff relief for wood

If enacted, the bill would direct the U.S. Trade Representative to impose retaliatory tariffs on EU imports if the EU enforces certain deforestation or fumigant rules against U.S. products. The bill would also direct the President to remove tariffs on specified machine-made paper and wood-processing inputs when imported for use by sawmills, pulp mills, or paper mills. The bill sets no tariff rates and makes these actions conditional on specified foreign rules or on the import classification and use.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Westerman, Bruce [R-AR-4]

AR • R

Cosponsors

  • Rep. Perez, Marie Gluesenkamp [D-WA-3]

    WA • D

    Sponsored 10/22/2026

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

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