Advocacy Day Highlights
It was certainly a pleasure to spend some quality time earlier this week with AMBA members who made the trek to Washington for our Advocacy Day event. As I mentioned last week, it’s important for Members of Congress and their staff to hear directly from you—the constituent and job creator—about what the federal government can do—and not do—to make your lives easier.
One of the highlights for me was the issue briefing on Monday, where our members addressed the group on some of the more detailed intricacies of our policy priorities. Tax issues can be daunting and overly complicated, but we all came away with a clearer understanding of why bonus depreciation matters and why Congress must act to restore this critical benefit.
Another highlight for me was a Hill meeting in which I participated with the Massachusetts group. We had asked for a meeting with Senator Markey but ended up in a conference room with his staff. I have found that it can be very difficult to secure meetings with some Senators from Northeastern states. Anyhow, we were in the middle of a conversation about the Credit Card Competition Act and in walks Senator Markey to greet our group. We hit him quickly on the need for action on the tax bill and he gave us the thumbs up that he is fully on board and we need to convince Republicans to act now and get this legislation to the President.
As with any event, there is always room for improvement, and we have taken notes on some areas on which we will focus for next year. But from my perspective, I thought things went well, and the groups that I walked the halls with seemed pleased and that their time was well spent.
Updates on the Farm Bill
This week featured some significant developments on reauthorizing the Farm Bill. As we have mentioned, this statute—reauthorized every five years—is important to the wood building products sector as there are many provisions in the Forestry and Energy titles that seek to promote markets for renewable, sustainable building products.
On Tuesday, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson (R-PA) rolled out a high-level summary of what his bill will look like. We have been told by his team that the legislation will renew the Community Wood grant program that promotes development and production of innovative wood products, as well as heating and renewable energy technologies that rely on sawmill residuals. His bill will also reauthorize the Wood Innovation Grant program and includes provisions to promote active forest management on our nation’s federal forest landholdings. On workforce, we have been told by committee staff that there will be language based on the Jobs in the Woods Act to standup training programs around the country to entice young adults to enter the forestry and forest building products workforce.
We are hearing that a markup on this legislation will take place on May 23. Specific legislative text should be available a few days before the markup. And then the following day, Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairman of the Senator Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee unveiled a 94-page summary of her version of a Farm Bill. Her legislation, which is not supported by her Ranking Member Senator John Boozman (R-AR), doubles the funding for the Community Wood grant program to $50 million a year over the life of the Farm Bill. That amounts to $250 million—a significant investment in the wood building products sector. Her bill also makes changes and beefs up the Bio Preferred program, which is a procurement preference and labeling program for biobased products, which includes wood building materials.
There is no sense yet when the Senate is looking to move on this legislation or when legislative text will be available.
