II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1336
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a grant program to
address forestry workforce development needs, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
APRIL8, 2025
Mr. K
ING(for himself, Mr. RISCH, Mr. MERKLEY, Mr. CRAPO, Mrs. SHA-
HEEN, Ms. COLLINS, Ms. SMITH, and Ms. KLOBUCHAR) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Ag-
riculture, Nutrition, and Forestry
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a grant
program to address forestry workforce development
needs, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Jobs in the Woods 4
Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. FORESTRY WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT GRANTS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
(1) C
AREER PATHWAY .—The term ‘‘career 8
pathway’’ has the meaning given the term in section 9
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•S 1336 IS
3 of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 1
(29 U.S.C. 3102). 2
(2) E
LIGIBLE AREA.—The term ‘‘eligible area’’ 3
means an area that— 4
(A) is a nonmetropolitan area that quali-5
fies as a low-income community (as defined in 6
section 45D(e) of the Internal Revenue Code of 7
1986); 8
(B) has access to, or has a plan to achieve, 9
broadband service with— 10
(i) at least 100 Mbps download speed 11
and 20 Mbps upload speed; 12
(ii) latency sufficiently low for real- 13
time, interactive applications; and 14
(iii) network reliability of not more 15
than 48 hours of outage time over any 16
365-day period; and 17
(C) has a population of 20,000 or fewer in-18
habitants. 19
(3) E
LIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘‘eligible enti-20
ty’’ means— 21
(A) a nonprofit organization; 22
(B) a State; 23
(C) an Indian Tribe; 24
(D) a unit of local government; and 25
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•S 1336 IS
(E) an institution of higher education (as 1
defined in section 101 of the Higher Education 2
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001)). 3
(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 4
the Secretary of Agriculture. 5
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 1 year after 6
the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall es-7
tablish a competitive grant program to make grants to eli-8
gible entities to carry out career pathway training pro-9
grams in eligible areas with respect to forestry operations 10
and forestry products industries. 11
(c) A
PPLICATIONS.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—To be eligible to receive a 13
grant under this section, an eligible entity shall sub-14
mit to the Secretary an application at such time, in 15
such manner, and containing such information as 16
the Secretary may require, which shall include— 17
(A) a demonstrated capacity to carry out a 18
career pathway training program in accordance 19
with subsection (b); 20
(B) a demonstration of need for such a 21
program within the applicable region; 22
(C) a projection of the extent of reach in-23
tended for the program; 24
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(D) a plan to ensure that the program is 1
sustainable; and 2
(E) a plan for the implementation of the 3
program. 4
(2) P
RIORITY.—In awarding grants under this 5
section, the Secretary shall give priority to eligible 6
entities that— 7
(A) propose to carry out activities to ad-8
dress the issues of aging workforce and youth 9
migration; 10
(B) will partner with secondary schools (as 11
defined in section 8101 of the Elementary and 12
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 13
7801)), vocational or technical schools, or jun-14
ior or community colleges (as defined in section 15
312 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 16
U.S.C. 1058)) to engage students; and 17
(C) demonstrate the ability to assist with 18
forestry workforce placement and hiring. 19
(d) T
ERM; AMOUNT.—A grant made under this sec-20
tion shall be— 21
(1) for a period of not more than 4 years; and 22
(2) in an amount equal to— 23
(A) not less than $500,000; and 24
(B) not more than $2,000,000. 25
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(e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 1
authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section 2
$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2025 through 2029. 3
Æ
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