Congressman Sean Duffy Introduces The ROAD Act

Press Release

Congressman Sean Duffy (R-WI), Chairman of the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing & Insurance, today introduced the ROAD Act which amends Good Neighbor Authority to include the construction, reconstruction, repair, or restoration of roads within National Forests.

Currently, GNA allows the U.S. Forest Service to enter into cooperative agreements or contracts with states like Wisconsin to perform watershed restoration and forest management services on National Forest System lands. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has a Good Neighbor Authority (GNA) agreement with the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, which is federally managed. However, permanent or paved roads in the forest cannot be built with GNA funds, even though most timber sales in national forests requires some sort of road construction or repair to haul the timber away from the forest. Without funds to repair and maintain these roads, loggers are restricted in their ability to reach timber parcels they otherwise could have. This change needs to be made to ensure that loggers can safely and more efficiently reach areas in national forests where timber is harvested.

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