S. 3152 — LEAF Act of 2025

This section inserts a new section 107 in the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003 (HFRA) after section 106 (16 U.S.C. 6516) to establish, effective upon enactment of the LEAF Act of 2025, a preference—to the maximum extent practicable—for the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Forest Service Chief, to award contracts in a state for "authorized projects" (i.e., hazardous fuels reduction activities such as mechanical thinning, mastication, prescribed burning, timber harvesting, fuel breaks, hazard tree removal, and riparian restoration) to "appropriate local contractors" (i.e., entities with principal place of business in the state where at least 26% of the workforce, including subcontractors, resides, or within a 60-mile radius of the state of registration). (1) It requires annual reports to Congress beginning two years after enactment of the LEAF Act of 2025, including quantitative analysis of local contract awards (number, percentage, dollar value), economic impacts on local employment and capacity, reasons for non-local awards, and implementation details; and (2) it directs the Secretary to establish a monitoring and evaluation process for compliance, potentially involving Tribal governments and other stakeholders. This section also redesignates HFRA sections 107 and 108 as sections 108 and 109, respectively, and updates the table of contents accordingly.