Bulletin Board Magazine 2022 Volume 1

o Increase the domestic supply of timber from public lands in an environmentally responsible manner o Negotiate a new softwood lumber agreement with Canada that will eliminate tariffs. • At the behest of NAHB, 84 members of Congress sent a joint letter to Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo in late December expressing strong concern that higher lumber tariffs will raise housing costs and the urgent need for the U.S. to resume talks with Canada to negotiate a new softwood lumber trade agreement. • Consulting with NAHB, lawmakers are taking to the House floor to deliver a strong message calling for immediate action to reduce lumber prices and tariffs and to fix broken supply chains to protect housing affordability. Reps. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.) and Norma Torres (D-Calif.). recently spoke out on these issues. • And in an effort spearheaded by NAHB, the Biden administration last summer held its first Housing Supply Chain Summit to investigate issues affecting lumber and building materials shortages and price increases. • Continuing its campaign that began in 2020, NAHB has dominated the news cycle on lumber prices. • Most recently, we have delivered our message that the rising lumber prices since late summer have added more than $18,600 to the price of a new home and that policymakers must act now to fight these affordability headwinds. NAHB Communications and Economics

Bulletin Board | 16 | www.shorebuilders.org administration and continues today. The reasons are numerous – plywood and OSB production are not keeping up with increased home building; ongoing production bottlenecks are limiting • This unprecedented lumber price volatility began in 2020 during the Trump • NAHB CEO Jerry Howard appeared on Fox Business shows Varney & Co. and Cavuto Coast-to-Coast to discuss lumber prices, building material supply chain issues and overall housing affordability concerns. And NAHB Chief Economist Robert Dietz was interviewed by NPR on these same topics. • NAHB’s economics group has been quoted in numerous articles on their lumber data –including how rising lumber prices have added more than $18,600 to the price of a new home – in the Washington Post, MarketWatch, Business Insider, Barron’s and Bloomberg. • Since December 2021, NAHB has been mentioned in over 1,000 news stories on these topics. Going back to August 2020, when we first started tracking these numbers, we have earned $92.5 million in media coverage, with more than 18,200 lumber and supply chain stories featured in national and local news. • What this means is that we effectively got $92.5 million in national publicity for free rather than having to pay for it. • And we continue to engage with top economic policymakers. NAHB’s Economics team has held several meetings with their counterparts at the Commerce Department to make lumber and building material supply chain issues front and center to the administration. We specifically cited the need for lumber mills to increase output to meet demand. Fight Continues Until the Job is Done

output; and massive wildfires in the western U.S. and British Columbia that limited mill production. • Our efforts on this front are showing results. In addition to our win on tariffs, lumber prices and futures prices are beginning to trend downward. • It will not be a quick process and much more remains to be done. We will continue to work tirelessly to keep pressure on policymakers and industry stakeholders to ease production bottlenecks, increase output and protect housing affordability. • Learn more about NAHB’s efforts to address the lumber and building material supply chain crisis by visiting. nahb.org/ lumber. OSHA’s Vaccine Mandate block the Biden administration from enforcing a Covid-19 vaccine or testing mandate for all employers with at least 100 workers. • NAHB strongly supports the efforts of the federal government to get as many Americans vaccinated as possible and has actively encouraged our members to make vaccines available to their workers. • But NAHB believes that using OSHA as the primary mechanism for this effort exceeds its statutory authority as a workplace safety agency – and the Supreme Court agreed. • In light of the Supreme Court ruling, the administration moved to formally withdraw its vaccine and testing mandate effective on Jan. 26. • While the ruling effectively ended the mandate for general business, NAHB urged OSHA to withdraw the rule in a letter dated Jan. 19. • In a victory for NAHB members, the Supreme Court on Jan. 13 voted 6-3 to

Here are just a few highlights:

• NAHB was able to place an op-ed by Chairman Chuck Fowke in the Seattle Times detailing the struggles with lumber and the need to end the tariffs.

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