{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://salinas.house.gov/media/press-releases/salinas-gluesenkamp-perez-moore-urge-federal-government-expand-use-mass-timber", "Salinas, Gluesenkamp Perez, Moore Urge Federal Government to Expand Use of Mass Timber in Federal Buildings", "2023-12-13", "2023", "2023-12", "Democrat", "House", "OR", "Andrea Salinas", "S001226", "salinas.house.gov", "salinas", "https://salinas.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, DC \u2013 This week, U.S. Representatives Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA-03), and Barry Moore (AL-02) led a bipartisan letter to the General Services Administration (GSA) encouraging expanded use of mass timber in federal buildings.\n\nIn the letter, the lawmakers express concern that while the GSA recently awarded $2 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding for 150 projects, none of the funds were awarded to projects using sustainable wood products, including mass timber.\n\nUtilizing wood products is critical for supporting rural jobs and reducing wildfire risk, and it is one of the most effective ways to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings. These products come from renewable resources, store carbon, and don\u2019t require the same fuel-intensive manufacturing process common for other other building materials.\n\n\u201cCountries around the world have made building with wood a top priority to reach climate goals, yet our own federal government continues to lag in its adoption of low-embodied carbon wood products,\u201d wrote the lawmakers. \u201cAs GSA continues to take steps to reduce the carbon footprint for the built environment within its real estate portfolio, we strongly urge you to ensure that low-embodied carbon wood products, such as mass timber, play a role.\u201d\n\nAcross the United States, the forest products industry directly employs roughly 925,000 people and indirectly supports nearly 2 million jobs.\n\n\u201cI am deeply concerned about GSA\u2019s decision not to award Inflation Reduction Act funding to projects that use sustainable wood products. As a lead sponsor of the bipartisan Timber Innovation for Building Rural Communities Act, I believe we must invest in our working forests and help make them more resilient to wildfires and climate change,\u201d said Rep. Salinas. \u201cI join my colleagues in urging the Administration to utilize sustainable wood products moving forward, and I will continue working to ensure Oregon\u2019s critical mass timber industry gets the support it deserves from our federal government.\u201d\n\n\u201cIf we want to support Southwest Washington timber economies, prevent wildfires, and rebuild meaningful jobs in the trades, our federal government needs to lead by example by building with home-grown wood products,\u201d said Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez. \u201cI appreciate the support of my bipartisan colleagues to help ensure federal dollars going out the door make it to our local loggers and tradespeople. It\u2019s what\u2019s good for rural Americans and it\u2019s what\u2019s good for our environment.\u201d\n\n\u201cBuilding with mass timber is a great way to leverage value-added properties of American timber,\u201d said Rep. Moore. \u201cOur foresters here in Alabama and across America deserved the chance to benefit from these construction projects, and I hope the Biden Administration will consider them in the future.\u201d\n\nThe letter was also signed by Reps. Sanford Bishop (GA-02), Jim Costa (CA-21), Don Davis (NC-01), John Garamendi (CA-08), Derek Kilmer (WA-06), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), and Glenn Thompson (PA-15).\n\nFull text of the letter can be found here.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T01:14:16Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://salinas.house.gov/media/press-releases/salinas-gluesenkamp-perez-moore-urge-federal-government-expand-use-mass-timber"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0321405716240406, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}