House Passes Appropriations Bill

Before adjourning for August recess last week, the House passed seven of the twelve annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government, including Agriculture, Labor-HHS, Energy-Water, Financial Services, Interior-Environment, Military Construction, and Transportation-HUD. Included in the Agriculture and Interior appropriations bills is continued research funding for forestry products and language that requires the Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy, and Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate a policy across federal agencies to "reflect the carbon benefits of forest bioenergy and recognize biomass as a renewable energy source, provided the use of forest biomass for energy production does not cause conversion of forests to non-forest use; (B) encourage private investment through out the forest biomass supply chain, including in--(i) working forests; (ii) harvesting operations; (iii) forest improvement operations; (iv) forest bioenergy production; (v) wood products manufacturing; or (vi) paper manufacturing..."

The Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up its Agriculture, Energy and Water, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs appropriations bills on Wednesday. The federal government's fiscal year ends September 20th, requiring the Fiscal Year 2022 appropriations bills or a continuing resolution to pass for the goverment to remany fully open on October 1st.