Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act of 2023

Community Wood Facilities Assistance Act of 2023

This bill makes changes to grant programs administered by the Forest Service to promote wood products.

Specifically, the bill reauthorizes through FY2028 and modifies a program that supports capital costs for installing community wood energy systems and building innovative wood products facilities, including by increasing the maximum grant amount per facility.

The bill also modifies a program that provides grants to develop and expand the market for innovative wood products. Specifically, the bill (1) modifies the grant priorities, and (2) increases the portion of a project's cost that may be covered by such a grant.

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1735 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1735

To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to improve 
    assistance to community wood facilities, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 18, 2023

Mrs. Feinstein (for herself, Ms. Collins, Mrs. Shaheen, and Mr. Kelly) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
           Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 to improve 
    assistance to community wood facilities, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Community Wood Facilities Assistance 
Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. COMMUNITY WOOD FACILITIES GRANT PROGRAM.

    Section 9013 of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 
(7 U.S.C. 8113) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``energy and wood 
        innovation'' and inserting ``facilities grant'';
            (2) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1)(A)(iii), in the matter 
                preceding subclause (I), by striking ``woody biomass, 
                including'' and inserting ``primarily forest biomass, 
                including processing or manufacturing''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (4), by striking ``Energy and Wood 
                Innovation'' and inserting ``Facilities Grant'';
            (3) in subsection (b), by striking ``Energy and Wood 
        Innovation'' and inserting ``Facilities Grant'';
            (4) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``35'' and 
                inserting ``50'';
                    (B) by striking paragraph (2); and
                    (C) by redesignating paragraph (3) as paragraph 
                (2);
            (5) in subsection (d), by striking ``exceed--'' in the 
        matter preceding paragraph (1) and all that follows through the 
        period at the end of paragraph (2) and inserting ``exceed 
        $5,000,000.'';
            (6) in subsection (e)--
                    (A) by striking paragraph (1);
                    (B) by redesignating paragraphs (2) through (8) as 
                paragraphs (1) through (7), respectively; and
                    (C) in paragraph (1) (as so redesignated), by 
                inserting ``or market competitiveness'' after ``cost 
                effectiveness'';
            (7) in subsection (f)--
                    (A) by striking paragraph (2);
                    (B) by redesignating paragraphs (3) and (4) as 
                paragraphs (2) and (3), respectively; and
                    (C) in paragraph (2) (as so redesignated), by 
                striking ``use or retrofitting (or both) of existing 
                sawmill'' and inserting ``construction, use, or 
                retrofitting of forest products manufacturing'';
            (8) in subsection (g)--
                    (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ``5 megawatts of 
                thermal energy or combined thermal and electric 
                energy'' and inserting ``15 megawatts of thermal 
                energy''; and
                    (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ``25 percent'' 
                and inserting ``50 percent''; and
            (9) in subsection (h), by striking ``$25,000,000 for each 
        of fiscal years 2019 through 2023'' and inserting ``$50,000,000 
        for each of fiscal years 2024 through 2028''.

SEC. 3. WOOD INNOVATIONS GRANT PROGRAM.

    Section 8643 of the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (7 U.S.C. 
7655d) is amended--
            (1) in the section heading, by striking ``innovation'' and 
        inserting ``innovations'';
            (2) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) in the subsection heading, by striking 
                ``Incentivizing Use of Existing Milling'' and inserting 
                ``Expanding Forest Products Manufacturing''; and
                    (B) by striking ``use or retrofitting (or both) of 
                existing sawmill'' and inserting ``construction, use, 
                or retrofitting for forest products manufacturing''; 
                and
            (3) in subsection (d), by inserting ``50 percent of'' 
        before ``the amount''.
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