Mass Timber Federal Buildings Act of 2025
- Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
- Introduced in Senate
The provisions, in plain language.
When federal agencies (GSA and the Department of Defense) enter contracts to build, renovate, buy, or lease public buildings — including military installations — they must give priority to buildings that use domestic innovative wood products (including mass timber) procured from US-based facilities and harvested from US forestlands following responsible sourcing standards.
When buying innovative wood products under this priority, agencies must prefer products sourced from forest restoration practices, wildfire-protection forest management actions, or underserved forest owners — including Tribally owned forests and small family forests.
Within 180 days of enactment, the GSA Administrator — in consultation with the Secretary of Agriculture — must conduct a cradle-to-gate whole-building lifecycle assessment measuring the global warming potential of new public buildings that use innovative wood products, following ISO standards 14044 and 14020.
Within 180 days of completing the lifecycle assessment, the Administrator must submit a report on the results to Congress and make it publicly available.
Who it helps · who it burdens.
Who it helps
- Domestic mass timber and innovative wood product manufacturersReceive procurement priority for federal construction contracts because the bill requires agencies to give priority to buildings using innovative wood products procured from US-based facilities (Provision 1).
- Tribal, underserved, and small family forest ownersReceive explicit sourcing preference; the bill directs agencies to prefer products sourced from Tribally owned forests and small family forests when buying innovative wood products (Provision 2).
Who it burdens
- Federal agencies (GSA and Department of Defense)Must restructure procurement processes to give priority to domestic wood-product buildings, apply sourcing preferences, seek verification documentation, and complete a lifecycle assessment — new administrative obligations (Provisions 1–4).