Congressman Bruce Westerman

Washington
209 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-3772
Fax: (202) 225-1314

11/02/2026

Each fall, Arkansas’ natural beauty is on full display, highlighting the majesty of our rolling hills, rivers, and forests. This week, with cooler temperatures and changing leaves, Arkansans are eager to get outside and explore. Whether it’s hiking a trail in the Ozark Mountains, cruising the Scenic 7 Byway, or just taking in the beauty of the Arkansas Grand Canyon, there’s something for everyone in the Natural State.

This week, I was grateful for the opportunity to get outside and explore the Fourth District. As an avid outdoorsman, there’s nothing quite like getting up on a chilly, early morning to spot some wild elk in Boxley Valley before spending the afternoon hiking along trails that lead to incredible views like Hawksbill Crag, where miles and miles of leaves in every shade of amber can be seen.

My love for the great outdoors and Arkansas’ abundant recreation opportunities are why I am proud to have been able to introduce the EXPLORE Act, which is now law. This legislation expands access and improvements to outdoor recreation and infrastructure. Specifically, it supports rural towns across Arkansas and America that act as gateway communities to beloved campsites, trailheads, bike trails, and more. By doing so, it helps these local communities address the housing shortages and outdated infrastructure that often directly result from heavy volumes of tourists.

Beyond ensuring our local communities are equipped with the resources they need to host an abundance of visitors, this law also works to restore campgrounds, protect rock climbing locations, create long-distance bike trails, increase broadband connectivity, and improve accessibility for our service members, veterans, children, and visitors with disabilities.

Growing up in Arkansas gave me a great appreciation for our natural heritage. It’s a goal of mine in Congress to ensure that everyone has the opportunity to experience the same wonder and beauty here in our own backyard and across the country. October is one of the most beautiful months of the year for the Natural State, and my hope is that every Arkansan can find time to get outside and explore this beautiful state we all have the privilege to call our home.

10/26/2026

From seed to sawmill, our trees play an integral role in our daily lives. In the ground, they provide clean air, clean water, and better ecosystems for our wildlife. After they’re processed through the sawmill, we see them put to use in everyday products from the furniture in our homes to the paper towels in our kitchens and the boxes our deliveries come in.

This week, we recognize National Forest Products Week and celebrate the economic, environmental, and social impact of this vital industry. As one of our state’s leading economic drivers, we depend heavily on a strong pulp and paper and wood products market. Unfortunately, our forest products industry is deteriorating quickly before our eyes. With pressure from static market conditions, subsidized foreign goods, and an overly burdensome domestic regulatory environment leading to mill closures nation-wide, we are at a tipping point for our nation’s – and state’s – forestry industry.

What’s more, a strong forest products industry and healthy forests go hand-in-hand: when we support our domestic wood product markets, we’re also keeping our forests strong and healthy. Mill closures, reduced production, job loss, and declining investment create a ripple effect, impacting the trees still rooted deeply in the ground by putting their health at risk and priming them as tinderboxes for devastating wildfire.

To address the issues impacting our forest product markets and our forest health, I was proud to introduce the Strong American Wood (SAW) Act this week. This bill works to enhance the demand for American-grown wood and supports the domestic and pulp and paper product markets by promoting new markets through research and innovation, enacting fair trade policy, and clearing regulatory hurdles.

The SAW Act approaches this issue in three ways. It strengthens demand for American wood by incentivizing home building using domestic lumber and creating new markets for woody biomass. It levels the playing field for trade by ensuring foreign imports aren’t undermining our national security and threatening domestic markets. And it clears the regulatory hurdles hamstringing our mills while also ensuring the federal government is supporting American forests, not foreign ones, by allowing only domestic lumber when wood is used in federal buildings.

It’s almost unbelievable that the United States is the world’s largest importer of wood and paper products, while we have more trees now than we did in 1900. With mills across the country continuing to close and our forests going up in smoke, we’ve been exporting American jobs while leaving one of our most abundant natural resources out to dry. The SAW Act would work to revitalize demand for American wood, put our mills back to work, and create more incentive for our landowners to manage their forests.

At the same time, the United States is more than 4 million homes behind in housing construction. And when homes aren’t being built, there’s a diminished demand for lumber, further driving our mills to close and leading to related infrastructure loss. This sets the stage for future supply shortages, higher costs, and an even greater dependence on imports.

Arkansas’ forest products industry is responsible for over $7 billion of our state’s GDP, which means our rural communities and the state as a whole cannot afford to lose any more mills or jobs they support. The SAW Actinvests in innovative markets for our wood products so that low-value wood and residual timber can be put to use – allowing landowners and producers to expand their operations and improve forest health, reducing the risk of wildfire.

The bottom line is, if we want to see more trees and healthier forests, we must be investing in the products made from them. This National Forest Products Week, I’m putting pen to paper to ensure we establish a strong future for American wood. With overwhelming support from industry stakeholders, I’m eager to see the SAW Act move swiftly through the legislative process and be signed into law.

10/19/2026

Every corner of the Natural State has a different story to tell if you were to ask what agriculture means to them. From row crops and rice fields that proudly rank first in the nation for production to the cattle ranches, poultry farms, and deep-rooted timber industry, farming is our shared heritage.

These farmers all have different stories to tell, and their days all look a bit different. But no matter what the commodity they’re working to produce, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone else who works harder than an Arkansas farmer.

Representing a vast portion of the state, I have the privilege of knowing these farmers. Many of them have been working the land that their grandparents and great-grandparents worked to establish. In Arkansas, we take pride in Agriculture not just because it’s something we’re good at, but because it’s been our way of life for generations.

Agriculture tells the story of Arkansas and our nation. Through the grit and determination of those who came before us, we have now established ourselves as a leading producer of several products shipped to every corner of the country and the world. To recognize the contribution our farming forefathers made, we must continue to steward this way of life well and invest in it so that future generations of Arkansas farmers can take up the mantle with pride.

This week, we recognized National Farmers Day. Leading up to this day to recognize our farmers for their incredible contribution to our way of life, it was recently announced that our farmers would begin receiving roughly $1 billion in enhanced ARC/PLC farm safety net benefits this month – which is an increase of $381 million from the reconciliation package last year, aiming at providing some relief for our agriculture industry.

Farming families from every corner of Arkansas are the backbone of our economy – feeding, clothing, and fueling millions. I want them to know their concerns are being heard by me and in Congress. While I am certainly pleased to see this win for Arkansas farmers, the fight to secure more long-lasting certainty for their future is far from over, and I will continue working in Congress to ensure that our agriculturalists receive the help they need.

10/12/2026

With early detection becoming more critical, schools across Arkansas are seeing a greater need for trained professionals who understand learning disabilities like dyslexia. Thankfully, opportunities continue to arise to create the workforce necessary to meet this demand.

Last year, the University of Arkansas announced its partnership with the Academic Language Therapy Association and the Nelms Dyslexia Center to create a new master’s degree pathway for those looking to pursue a career in learning development.

Since then, we have seen the expansion of the university’s graduate pathway extend beyond our state’s borders, we’ve seen federal funding pumped into the state to promote research around literacy teaching, and other initiatives pop up across the state that are focused on empowering young learners to overcome the barriers of dyslexia.

As we learn more about dyslexia, we see how early detection and intervention can make a massive difference in student success. In 2017, the Journal of Educational Psychology published a study that followed a group of first-, second-, and third-grade students with reading disabilities who participated in a reading intervention method that had been found effective in previous research.

The study concluded that the first- and second-grade students had made larger improvements toward basic reading skills compared to the third-grade students. And more notably, the first graders were reported to develop their reading at a faster pace long after the controlled program had ended.

These studies proved what we now know to be true: early intervention is crucial for children who struggle to read due to a learning disability and coupled with the right tools, even just one year can make all the difference in setting them up for success.

As the co-chair of the Congressional Dyslexia Caucus, I was proud to introduce a resolution this week that recognizes October as Dyslexia Awareness Month.

Dyslexia impacts one in five Americans, and our educators, parents, and students need clarity and support to meet this learning disability head on. This resolution works to highlight the importance of continued advocacy and awareness around this learning disability while underscoring a commitment to fostering a more inclusive learning environment for all students.