Rep. Sewell Leads Bipartisan Effort to Help Preserve Timberland Tax Provisions

Statement

Congresswoman Terri Sewell helped lead a bipartisan effort to encourage House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and Ranking Member Sander Levin to retain the current tax treatment applicable to timberland owners and investors as the Committee examines ways to modernize the tax code.

Rep. Sewell worked closely with lead Republican sponsor Rep. Dan Benishek (MI-1) and was joined by colleagues Austin Scott (R-GA-8) and Kurt Schrader (D-OR-5) on a letter sent today to Chairman Ryan and Levin urging the Committee to retain the current timberland tax provisions in any tax reform initiatives. The letter was signed by 80 members of Congress.

"We often take our forests and the numerous benefits they provide for granted. It is especially important now, as we recover from the Great Recession, to preserve the timberland tax provisions to help hundreds of rural communities still struggling to rebound," Rep. Sewell said.

"We urge the leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee to recognize the importance of our private forests by preserving existing timberland tax provisions in any tax reform package. These provisions are critical in order to help retain the 2.4 million jobs and $102 billion annually our private forests contribute to the national economy. In Alabama, those forests contribute $12 billion to the state's economy and support more than 140,000 jobs."

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