State Level Legislation
The Kentucky Forest Industries Association (KFIA) represents the wood products and forestry community within Kentucky on a wide range of legislative issues. The Association maintains a presence in Frankfort at the state legislature during the annual legislative sessions and throughout the interim to monitor and promote our legislative agenda. We are constantly educating legislators on our issues and fight to improve the business climate in Kentucky and stop unneeded regulations that can put companies out of business and affect landowners rights to manage their property. KFIA is the only wood industry/forestry related group that has a registered lobbyist working within the Kentucky. We provide regular updates to our members on all legislative activities through our monthly newsletter and weekly News Express that is available to all members.
The Association has been successful in establishing a great working relationship with key legislators and has a reputation of being familiar with all forestry issues and working to address issues that arise within the wood industry in a sensible manner. Lobbying efforts over recent years has resulted in a wide range of legislative success that has resulted implementation of the Forest Conservation Act, keeping overweight fines on forest products within a reasonable range and increased road weights on state roads to allow raw material to be moved from the woods to the mills. Our efforts have been very successful in educating a wide range of partner groups to realize the large economic impact of the wood industry in Kentucky and how it is important to work together to on natural resource and business issue that affect the workforce in Kentucky
Federal Level Legislation
The Hardwood Federation is the largest DC-based hardwood industry trade association, representing thousands of hardwood businesses in every state in the U.S. and acting as the industry's advocacy voice on Capitol Hill. It is an umbrella organization representing the majority of trade associations engaged in the manufacturing, wholesaling, or distribution of North American hardwood lumber, veneer, plywood, flooring and related products.
The Federations mission is to:
- Promote and represent the common business interests of and improve business conditions among members of the hardwood industry??
- Maintain a healthy business environment for family businesses and small companies in the hardwood community
- Maintain commercial access to federal and private hardwood timberlands
- Maintain and improve the health of public and private hardwood forests
KFIA is working diligently with the Federation to keep YOUR voice heard on the national level.
