Introduction to H.R. 1443, H.R. 1444, AND H.R. 1445

Floor Speech

Mr. BROUN of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, today, I introduced H.R. 1443, H.R. 1444, and H.R. 1445, which would protect our Second Amendment rights and expand hunting and fishing access for all Americans.

Over the past several years, our federal government, some states, anti-hunting, and anti-Second Amendment forces have made moves to ban lead hunting and fishing products. Unfortunately, the arbitrary desire to regulate lead hunting and fishing products is not based on a full and rigorous scientific analysis of exactly what--if any--hazards lead bullets, shot and sinkers may pose to wildlife populations, the environment, as well as hunters and anglers.

Banning lead ammunition and fishing products in favor of non-lead or non-toxic products would be much more expensive to produce and represents an unfair financial burden on hunters and anglers. The excise taxes on ammunition, firearms, and fishing tackle contribute billions of dollars each year for conservation projects throughout the country. Any actions to ban lead products will likely discourage people from hunting and fishing--especially in these difficult economic times and decrease revenue into the Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson funds that are the keystone for financing state conservation efforts.

H.R. 1443, the Outdoor Sports Recreation Act, would prevent the Departments of Interior and Agriculture from prohibiting or limiting, based on material content, the use of any traditional hunting and fishing implement on federal public lands. This legislation would also deny any funding or revenue apportionment under the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act or the Dingell-Johnson Sport Fish Restoration Act to any state or territory that prohibits or restricts, based on material content, the sale or use of any traditional hunting and fishing implement. In addition, it would prohibit the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from regulating, based on material composition, any type of firearm ammunition or fishing tackle.

H.R. 1445 only focuses on the EPA. It simply restricts the EPA from regulating, based on material composition, any type of firearm ammunition or fishing tackle.

Finally, H.R. 1444 expands hunting on our vast federal lands. Hunting is already permitted on most Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service lands. This legislation would simply require that hunting activities be considered as a land use in all management plans for federal land, to the extent that it is not clearly incompatible with the purposes for which the federal land is managed.

I believe these three bills can play an important role in protecting our Second Amendment rights and help expand hunting and fishing access for all Americans.

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