Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Merkley, Jeff [D-OR]
Introduced
Summary
Promotes use of mass timber in federal public buildings. The bill would create a contracting preference for innovative wood products like mass timber in construction, alteration, acquisition, or lease of public buildings when those products come from U.S. facilities and responsibly managed U.S. forestlands.
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- Federal building projects would get a preference for mass timber when feasible. The General Services Administrator or the Defense Secretary would have to prioritize products procured from U.S. facilities and harvested from U.S. forestlands that meet responsible sourcing standards.
- Rural and Tribal forest owners could see more demand. The bill favors materials from restoration practices, forest actions meant to protect communities and infrastructure from catastrophic wildfire, and underserved owners including Tribally owned and small family forests, and it requires documentation to verify such sourcing.
- Environmental accountability would increase through a required cradle-to-gate whole-building lifecycle assessment focused on global warming potential and done to ISO 14044 and ISO 14020 standards. The assessment must be completed within 180 days after enactment and a report must be submitted to Congress and published within 180 days after the assessment is finished.
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
2 provisions identified: 2 benefits, 0 costs, 0 mixed.
Definitions for mass timber program
If enacted, the bill would add clear definitions for a federal mass timber buying program. It would define the GSA Administrator and the Secretary of Defense for the program. It would adopt the meanings of "innovative wood product" and "mass timber" by cross-reference to the 2018 farm law. It would also include military installations as public buildings and define "restoration practices" as forest work that improves resilience.
Priority for U.S. mass timber
If enacted, the bill would require GSA and the Defense Secretary to give priority to public building contracts that use innovative wood products. Eligible products would have to come from U.S. facilities and be harvested from U.S. forestlands that meet the bill's "responsible sources" rules. "Responsible sources" means either independent certification or sourcing from jurisdictions with forest best-practice programs, including Federal, State, and Tribal lands. Agencies would be asked to prefer products from restoration work, wildfire-protection forest actions, or underserved forest owners, and to collect documentation to verify sourcing.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Merkley, Jeff [D-OR]
OR • D
Cosponsors
Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]
OR • D
Sponsored 3/24/2025
Sen. Crapo, Mike [R-ID]
ID • R
Sponsored 3/24/2025
Sen. Risch, James E. [R-ID]
ID • R
Sponsored 3/24/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
View on Congress.gov