Cheat Sheet

April 9, 2026

USDA Announcing Streamlines NEPA Administration: Earlier this week the US Department of Agriculture announced they have finalized a rule modernizing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) regulations. This Final Rule consolidates seven agency-specific NEPA regulations into a single, department wide framework, reducing the overall volume of regulations by 66 percent. Agriculture based industries have expressed concerns about the bureaucratic overreach of NEPA for years. According to USDA officials, the changes in the Final Rule restore NEPA implementation to its core purpose: ensuring federal agencies consider environmental impacts while maintaining the flexibility needed for efficient permitting and faster delivery of critical USDA services and funding relied on by farmers, ranchers, loggers, and rural communities. 

Congress Returns Next Week:  We are wrapping up the back end of a two-week Congressional recess. When Members of Congress return to Washington next week, there are a number of deliverables to be addressed, most notably Fiscal Year 2026 funding for the Department of Homeland Security. The Hardwood Federation will be keeping up the pressure on Congress, specifically the Senate, to deliver economic relief funds for the hardwood mills.  Another important issue on deck is reauthorizing the federal surface transportation statute known as the Highway Bill; an issue that addresses one of our key priorities of increasing allowable truck weights on federal roads. The House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee intends to mark-up a comprehensive Highway Bill rewrite later in April.

In a number of meetings the Federation has had with T&I Committee members and staff, we have picked up signals that there is a good chance that the “Chairman’s Mark” (the text that will be the basis for the mark-up) will include language from the Safe Routes Act. This bill would allow trucks carrying logs, chips or biomass that are operating at the maximum gross vehicle weight on state roads to access the federal interstate system at those higher weights when it makes sense to do so. The Federation continues to advocate for including this language in the bill. We understand that Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy has voiced support for this language as well. Secretary Duffy was the lead sponsor of the Safe Routes Act when he served in the House.