New Wood Import Bill Forces Feds to Decide on Detained Shipments Within 30 Days, or Automatically Exclude Them

The Strengthen Wood Products Supply Chain Act of 2025 is all about putting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (acting for the Secretary of the Interior) on a strict clock when they suspect imported wood or plant products might be linked to illegal trade under the Lacey Act. Essentially, if you import wood products—think lumber, furniture, or paper—this bill aims to eliminate the administrative black hole where shipments used to get stuck indefinitely.

The Clock Starts Now: 5-Day Initial Decision

Right now, if Customs flags a shipment because they suspect it violates the Lacey Act (the law that bans the trade of illegally sourced wildlife, fish, and plants), they hand it over to the Fish and Wildlife Service for a closer look. This bill, under Section 3, changes the game immediately. Once Customs hands over the plants for a physical inspection, the Secretary only has 5 days to act. They must either release the plants or issue a formal notice of detention. If you’re a small business owner waiting on a container of flooring or specialized lumber, this five-day limit is huge; it means you get an answer fast, instead of waiting weeks just to know if your shipment is being held.

Transparency in Detention

If the shipment is detained, the government can’t just send a vague letter. The detention notice must be detailed. It has to spell out the exact reasons for the hold-up, how long the government expects the detention to last, and what tests they plan to run. It even has to tell the importer what information they can provide to speed up the process. This increased transparency is a massive win for importers, giving them the specific data they need to challenge the detention or resolve the issue quickly. Plus, if the feds run any tests on the wood—say, to determine its species or origin—they have to share the full results and testing procedures with the importer.

The Final 30-Day Countdown

This is perhaps the most critical change in the bill. Section 3 mandates that the Secretary must make a final decision on whether the detained plants can enter the country within 30 days of when they were first presented for examination. This means no more administrative limbo stretching into months. The bill has teeth here: If the Secretary misses that 30-day deadline, the plants are automatically considered excluded—meaning they are banned from entry or returned to Customs custody. For the Fish and Wildlife Service, this creates a significant administrative burden, forcing them to prioritize these cases, but for importers, it guarantees a final answer within a month, allowing them to plan their logistics and finances.

Moving the Goods (Under Bond)

Another practical feature is the ability for importers to move their detained shipment. If you have a container full of wood sitting on a dock accruing massive storage fees, you can ask the Secretary to move it to a different storage location. The catch? You have to post a bond guaranteeing the plants will be accounted for, and the Secretary has to agree that moving them won’t undermine the goal of the Lacey Act. This provision offers a crucial lifeline to importers facing exorbitant port storage fees while their paperwork is sorted out.