Washington D.C. 2026 – What’s In Store For The New Year?
The final quarter of 2025 was a bit of a roller coaster. Tension and partisan bickering punctuated much of the last months of the year as the longest government funding lapse in history (43 long days) dragged on. On Wednesday, November 12th, the U.S. House of Representatives finally passed legislation (H.R. 5371) to end the shutdown. The vote to fund the government was largely along party lines (222-209) and President Trump signed the measure shortly thereafter.
Although passage of the bill was a huge relief for the many people, communities and companies reliant on federal programs and functions paralyzed by the shutdown, it is not quite the end of the story. The bill only extends funding for most federal government operations through January 30, 2026, which means Members of Congress are looking at another period of intense negotiations as soon as they return to D.C. following the Christmas holidays if they hope to avoid another disruption to federal government operations.
However, some government entities were provided full funding through the end of the 2026 fiscal year (ending September 30, 2026).
The bill signed in November includes full fiscal year 2026 appropriations for the Departments of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, as well as Legislative Branch Operations. The good news for the hardwood industry is that by including full 2026 funding for USDA, vital programs for the agricultural sector, including program funding for the export promotion programs that support the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC), should not be disrupted for at least another year. However, departments and agencies outside of Agriculture and Veterans affairs will have to wait until January to confirm their budgets as Congress and the White House continue to negotiate.
Before the end of the year, work began in the Senate on four appropriations bills reported out of Senate committees earlier in 2025; Defense, Labor-Health and Human Services-Education, Commerce-Justice-Science and Transportation-Housing and Urban Development. Waiting in the wings was FY 2026 funding for the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations bill, which funds critical programs including the Wood Innovation Grant (WIG) and Community Wood Grant (CWG) programs. Although WIG and CWG are administered by the U.S. Forest Service located within the Agriculture Department, funding flows from the Interior budget. On a positive note, the Senate proposal for Interior funding includes $30 million for the WIG program and $15 million for CWG. Although the House concurs with the $30 million for WIG, they have eliminated CWG funding; an issue the Hardwood Federation and our wood products allies have already taken up with House appropriators. WIG and CWG programs will not be authorized for funding until the Interior bill passes Congress and is signed by the President.
The Interior bill also includes our policy rider enacted in 2017 and renewed every year since that calls upon EPA, DOE and USDA to recognize the carbon neutrality of forest-based biomass energy. With staunch supporter Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) chairing the Senate Appropriations Committee, we anticipate that the biomass rider will once again be reauthorized for FY 2026…if the bill can collect enough votes for final passage.
Government funding and finances are complicated and hard to understand as a rule, but this past year has been particularly challenging keeping everything straight.
The Hardwood Federation has worked closely with House and Senate Agriculture leadership to make sense of a very dense situation. We will continue to track, engage, and report as we move to the next phase of the budget process.
The second most likely focus of early 2026 attention will be the reauthorization of our nation’s highway program which could provide some positive movement towards increasing truck weights on federal interstates. We are encouraged by the introduction of legislation by this Congress addressing truck weight reform. One bill that is currently pending is our long-supported Safe Routes Act (H.R. 2166). Rep. Tony Wied (R-WI) is the lead sponsor of this measure which would allow trucks travelling at the maximum gross vehicle weight on state roads to access that state’s portion of the interstate for short distances. As we know several states have an 80,000-pound weight restriction but allow “tolerances” to exceed that weight for trucks carrying agricultural commodities, including timber. This bill would simply allow log trucks carrying that extra weight to access the interstate when it makes sense to do so.
The other bill, which is a close cousin to Safe Routes, is titled the FRESH Act or Freight Restriction Elimination for Safer Hauling Act of 2025 and is being promoted by Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA). The bill would simply allow trucks hauling “perishable commodities” to access the interstate highway system at weights in excess of 80,000 pounds. The term “perishable commodity” includes raw logs and forest products, pulp wood, chips and biomass. This bill has not yet been introduced, but we expect it to drop early in 2026.
Both Representative Collins and Wied sit on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which is the panel that will hold the pen on writing new surface transportation reauthorization legislation, colloquially known as the highway bill. The most recent update to the highway bill was the Infrastructure Investments and Jobs Act (IIJA) enacted in November 2021. The highway bill provisions of that measure expire on September 30, 2026. The Federation team will be working with our partners in the forestry and forest products value chain to include either of these measures in the final surface transportation reauthorization legislation as it is forged in the coming months.
In addition to these two measures, a coalition of large manufacturers in the food, beverage and pulp and paper sectors is promoting legislation that would authorize a 10-state pilot program to allow 91,000-pound rigs equipped with a sixth axle on the interstate highways. This bill is aimed at providing relief for shippers whose rigs weigh out before they “cube” out. In many instances, rigs are leaving distribution centers half or three quarters full because they have hit the 80,000-pound weight limit. This inefficiency results in more truck trips, increased traffic and air pollution. Variations of this bill have been under consideration for several years. The farthest it has made it in the legislative process was a House floor vote in 2015. Like the FRESH Act, this bill is expected to be introduced early in 2026.
Unfortunately, the Class 1 rail roads have and will continue to oppose all of these measures to make truck transportation safer and more efficient. However, in meetings we have had with transportation committee leadership in the House and Senate, as well as with rank-and-file committee members, we are picking up that there is appetite to finally address truck weight reform in this upcoming highway bill rewrite. The legislation we are promoting offers practical, common sense policy solutions to challenges truckers and shippers face all day every day on our nation’s roadways.
As with the budget process, we will continue to track and engage on the transportation provisions most important to the hardwood industry. It is almost assured that other important issues will emerge in early 2026, and we will be prepared to enter into the debate. Stay tuned for updates!
Dana Lee Cole, Executive Director
www.hardwoodfederation.com
