SOUTHEASTERN LUMBER MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION

SLMA is part of the Waters Advocacy Coalition (WAC), which has been working with Congress and the Trump Administration on ensuring conformity with the Sackett Supreme Court decision. WAC will be submitting formal comments under the WOTUS Notice: The Final Response to SCOTUS; Establishment of a Public Docket; Request for Recommendations, EPA-HQ-OW-2025-0093 in the coming weeks. WAC also advocated for passage of the PERMIT Act with the House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee over the past several months.

SLMA is continuing to lobby on behalf of the Forestry title for the Farm Bill, and have discussed reintroduction of H.R.5044 - Timber Innovation for Building Rural Communities Act from the 118th Congress for this Congress. SLMA is also advocating for full appropriations funding for the Wood Innovations Grant (WIG) program that is housed within the US Forest Service. SLMA lobbied the US Department of Agriculture in June to ensure full inclusion of the Wood Innovations Grants and Community Wood Grants as part of ongoing Appropriations discussions, and continues to have ongoing conversations with the US Forest Service to ensure programs like WIG are funded in FY26 and FY27 Appropriations process.

SLMA has met with the House, Senate and White House this quarter on issues regarding the Tax portion of the Budget Reconciliation process, which includes making 199A permanent, extending R&D tax provisions, abolishment or reform of the Death/Estate Tax, and ensuring more parity with the corporate rate for small businesses and "S Corps" has it relates to SLMA's members. SLMA continued its advocacy on 199A, estate tax and other tax provisions that impact small businesses as part of final passage in the "One Big Beautiful Bill" that was signed in to law on July Fourth. In September, SLMA met with the White House Office of Personal Liaison to discuss issues impacting small businesses, and thanked them for their work on the passage of the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

SLMA has met with the House of Representatives to discuss an extension for FY26 for increased mass timber utilization and further exertion of the sustainable building materials pilot program from Section 2861 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022 (Public Law 117-81). SLMA briefly met with members of the House of Representatives to further discussions of an FY27 extension of Section 2861 of the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2022 (Public Law 117-81) to increase mass timber use in the Department of Defense's construction portfolio. SLMA continues to have conversations with the House Armed Services Committee and the Senate Armed Services Committee on reauthorization of the mass timber pilot program.

SLMA met with the US Trade Representative's (USTR) Office in September to discuss the ongoing US-EU trade deal negotiations. Our discussions centered around the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) and its impact on US lumber producers, and the need for simplified language in the final trade deal on this issue. Additionally, SLMA met with the Office of Public Liaison (OPL) in the White House to discuss this issue and the ongoing softwood lumber dispute with the US-Canada. These issues both have a major impact on the domestic manufacturing output for the US wood products industry and SLMA member companies. In the Fall, SLMA met with the US Trade Representative's (USTR) office to discuss the ongoing trade case that imposes duties on imported Canadian softwood lumber, and advocated for SLMA's support of strict trade policies against imported Canadian lumber. SLMA also discussed non-tariff trade barriers to the EU that can help open markets for domestic wood products manufacturing byproducts like chips.