New federal program pays forest owners to restore wildlife habitat
S. 4548 — GROUSE Act of 2026 · Filed by Jim Justice (R-WV) · Introduced May 14, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new federal program under the Food Security Act that pays private forest landowners 75% of the costs to restore upland wildlife habitat on recently logged or disaster-affected forest land. Eligible landowners can receive payments for up to 250 acres to plant native trees, shrubs, and vegetation that support upland game birds and other wildlife, with contracts lasting up to 5 years and technical assistance available from the Department of Agriculture.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a cost-sharing payment program for private landowners undertaking voluntary habitat restoration. It is a conservation incentive, not a regulatory mandate or restriction.
What the text implies
- Program eligibility includes recently logged forest land, which may create incentive for landowners to log strategically to access restoration payments, though the 180-day window and 5% acreage cap limit this risk.
- No explicit appropriation amount is stated in the bill; funding depends on future congressional appropriations or reallocation within existing Food Security Act conservation budgets.
- Technical assistance provision (section 1242 reference) allows third-party providers to deliver services, potentially creating a market for consulting firms and conservation contractors.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The program funds voluntary habitat restoration on private forest land, creating public environmental benefits (upland species recovery, wildlife habitat) while sharing costs with participating landowners. Citizens gain improved wildlife habitat and ecosystem services without direct cost; the program is funded through existing agricultural conservation mechanisms.
Who stands to gain
- private forest landowners (direct payment recipients)
- conservation consulting firms and contractors (technical assistance providers)
- native plant nurseries and seed suppliers
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of Agriculture (Secretary), private nonindustrial forest landowners, Food Security Act of 1985, state and federal wildlife agencies
Where it stands
- May 14, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 14, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $50,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 35 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Jim Justice, the sponsor, reported $34,750 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership — $50,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,951 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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