Why it Matters: The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) is well positioned to represent the entire sporting-conservation community on three important bills being considered in Congress by the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries. The Subcommittee level hearing marks an important step forward in the legislative process for these priority bills.
Highlights:
- On Tuesday, September 10, Taylor Schmitz, Director, Federal Relations for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation is scheduled to testify before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries on three bills of importance to sportsmen and women.
- Specifically, Schmitz will testify on R. 6352, the Tax Stamp Revenue Transfer for Wildlife and Recreation Act, H.R. 8836, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, and H.R. 8632, the Biodiversity Oversight Scaled-back and Fully Erased (BIOSAFE) Act, all of which are priorities of CSF.
- CSF will represent the entire sporting-conservation community as the only organization who was invited to testify on all three of these bills.
Tomorrow, the House Natural Resources Committee will hold a hearing on three bills that are supported by CSF, and CSF’s Taylor Schmitz is set to be the only witness invited to speak on all three bills that are priorities of CSF.
H.R. 6352, the Tax Stamp Revenue Transfer for Wildlife and Recreation Act, , led by Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Rep. Blake Moore and CSC Vice Chair Rep. Jared Golden, will repurpose the $200 ATF Form-4 tax stamp money. Specifically, the legislation will send 85% ($170) of this money to the Pittman-Robertson Act to bolster state level conservation, hunter recruitment efforts, and to increase access opportunities for America’s sportsmen and women and the public at large. If passed, this legislation could bolster the Pittman-Robertson account by nearly $150 – $170 million for conservation and access. This legislation also requires that suppressor applications be approved within a 90-day timeline, unless the applicant is barred by law from purchasing a suppressor.
H.R. 8836, the Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, led by CSC member Rep. Zinke and Rep. Beyer, represents a critical step forward in our efforts to conserving and restoring habitat connectivity for our nation’s wildlife. This legislation seeks to codify the highly successful Secretarial Order 3362 that sought to conserve big game migration corridors and winter range across 11 western states; however, this legislation broadens this scope across the entire country and all wildlife species that migrate or move as part of their annual cycle would be eligible for funding. Additionally, this legislation respects the rights of private landowners while providing these important stakeholders with voluntary options to expand the conservation resources at their disposal. CSF firmly believes that for conservation to work at scale, private landowners must be able to envision themselves in the program, and the best way to achieve that is through voluntary, non-regulatory, and locally driven approaches.
Lastly, H.R. 8632, the BIOSAFE Act led by CSC Member Rep. Grothman, would require the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to withdrawal the proposed rule and policy updates titled “National Wildlife Refuge System; Biological Integrity, Diversity, and Environmental Health (BIDEH).
CSF looks forward to representing the sporting-conservation community on all three of the aforementioned bills.
