Legislative Log Farm Bill on the Horizon

Farm Bill on the Horizon

By DANA COLE, Executive Director of the Hardwood Federation

Every five years the Hardwood Federation focuses its attention on legislative negotiations around legislation commonly known as the Farm Bill, a massive bill that contains much more than just farm related provisions. The current Farm Bill is up for reauthorization in 2023 and, as with any major legislative effort, preparations must begin far in advance. Over the last couple of Farm Bill cycles in 2013 and 2018, the Hardwood Federation team has been an active participant in the Forests in the Farm Bill (FIFB) coalition. This group is comprised of representatives from every facet of the forestry and forest products value chain, including forest landowners, saw mills and the pulp and paper industry. A number of conservation groups are also part of this coalition, which has a proven track record of notching considerable policy victories over the last two cycles.

This year we are once again actively involved in the FIFB, which has just begun to meet and break into subgroups in an effort to refine the policy platform that the coalition will ultimately be taking to the Hill in the coming months. The HF team is participating in the Markets and Research Workgroup, which will be discussing and fashioning proposals—existing and new—to be considered by the overall group. An ideal outcome for this workgroup would be to identify additional policies in the context of the next Farm Bill that promote demand for U.S. produced hardwood and softwood products. Data have shown for generations now that strong demand for the forest resource is critical for maintaining thriving, healthy forestlands. We intend to push this message as part of our FIFB participation and to support our overall Farm Bill advocacy efforts. Working in parallel to this process, the Hardwood Federation’s Policy Committee met September to discuss proposals that our sector can support for inclusion in this next reauthorization process. Federation staff has also been collecting ideas during various industry meetings and conversations with hardwood leaders. We hope to forge consensus on at least a few items that we can work either as part of the FIFB platform or on our own.

"We anticipate a strong push next year to build on provisions in the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act to promote wood building materials due to their known carbon sequestering capability, forestry as a natural climate solution and biomass energy as an alternative to fossil fuels."

As you know, the Farm Bill reaches well beyond traditional row crop agriculture support systems and federal nutrition programs. This comprehensive measure includes a robust forestry title as well as an energy title that seeks to promote biomass energy we use in our mills. We anticipate a strong push next year to build on provisions in the recently enacted Inflation Reduction Act to promote wood building materials due to their known carbon sequestering capability, forestry as a natural climate solution and biomass energy as an alternative to fossil fuels.

Trade is also an important plank in our Farm Bill advocacy and we will once again be lobbying for full funding for the Market Access (MAP) and Foreign Market Development (FMD) Programs. These two initiatives have long been supported by the Hardwood Federation due to their excellent track record of opening up markets overseas for domestically produced hardwood forest products. In 2018, MAP and FMD were brought together under a new Agriculture Trade Promotion and Facilitation Program with an accompanying new Priority Trade Fund (PTF)—seeded with a $255 million mandatory permanent budgetary baseline annually for all the programs throughout the life of the current Farm Bill. This consolidation was designed to protect these programs from threats that would arise annually as part of the each year’s appropriations process. The Federation will be working closely with our industry allies that also benefit from these promotion programs to ensure that we secure at least the same level of mandatory funding that they currently enjoy, with the goal of increasing monetary support for these two critical programs.

We will keep you regularly apprised of our progress on hardwood priorities as the 2023 Farm Bill process kicks into full gear. In the meantime, if you have any thoughts on policies that we should be pursuing in the context of this process, please reach out to us. We—your Hardwood Federation team—likes to believe that we know the legislative process and pressure points to touch to get things done in Congress, but you are the experts on your operations and the market challenges you are facing. If there is an idea on your mind that would be helpful to our overall Farm Bill goal of growing demand for domestic hardwood forest products, we would love to hear from you. www.hardwoodfederation.com

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