Why It Matters: It is no secret that the Mid-Atlantic region (DE, MD, PA, VA, WV) plays an important role in our outdoor heritage. However, with the region also presents many challenges for sportsmen and women, conservation efforts generally. As 2024 ends, we can look back at the successes that are attributed to a strong National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses (NASC) network in the Mid-Atlantic. Successfully protecting and promoting our way of life could not have been done without the hard work of members of the region’s legislative sportsmen’s caucuses, along with the leadership of the regions participating, Governors Sportsmen’s Caucus members
Highlights:
- Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chairs and members led the charge on many victories within the region, including, but not limited to:
- Hunters in Maryland can continue to use lead ammunition for hunting (besides waterfowl).
- Senate Bill 983 would have created a lead ammunition “phase out” (ban) for hunters in the Old-Line State.
- Bird hunters in Delaware can now hunt on Sundays (during the regulated hunting seasons) for game birds (waterfowl, doves, upland birds, and turkeys).
- House Bill 271 removed the longstanding legislative prohibition on Sunday game bird hunting, allowing the Division of Fish and Wildlife to implement Sunday hunting.
- In Pennsylvania, the Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) can continue to set their own license fees for an additional 10 years.
- House Bill 1409 granted the PFBC the continuation of the ability to respond in a timely manner to changes in inflation and keep up with funding changes to produce sound conservation work and access and opportunity for residents and visitors (PFBC is funded 100% by the sportsmen and women of the Commonwealth).
- Numerous attempts to pass legislation in West Virginia, for free and/ or discounted licenses without a reimbursement model in place were successfully thwarted protecting crucial conservation funding via the American System of Conservation Funding (ASCF).
- Virginia Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus leadership-supported stationary blind legislation that will improve access and safety for waterfowlers and boaters was signed into law.
- As previously reported and discussed on The Sportsmen’s Voice Podcast, Pennsylvania was also a stone’s throw away from becoming the 48th state to offer more robust Sunday hunting opportunities before Senate Bill 67 stalled out right at the end of session.
As observed throughout the country, the Mid-Atlantic region celebrated more success than losses in 2024. The protection of conservation funding via the ASCF was protected in the Virginias by engaging on well-meaning free and/ or discounted licenses that lacked reimbursement language. Additional access for sportsmen and women was created with additional Sunday Hunting opportunities in Delaware, while the PFBC will maintain control of license fee setting for the next 10 years without needing to engage the legislature. These are but a sampling of the many victories that, if not for the NASC network and its leadership, would have most certainly been a significant challenge to secure.
While 2024 came with many successes, it also came with some disappointments. Senate Bill 67 sought to remove the longstanding legislative prohibition on Sunday hunting in the Commonwealth but was ultimately stalemated in the House Appropriations Committee. Sen. Dan Laughlin (previous Sportsmen’s Caucus Co-Chair) has released a legislative memo revealing his plans of reintroducing this initiative during the upcoming legislative session. Even though Senate Bill 67 ultimately failed, it laid a strong foundation for its potential, yet optimistic, passage in 2025.
The National Assembly of Sportsmen’s Caucuses was launched in 2004. Since then, it has grown to nearly 2,500 state legislators who are members of individual state legislative sportsmen’s caucuses in all 50 states, all united under the NASC umbrella. By fostering communication and interaction between and among state legislators, sportsmen’s groups, industry and media, the NASC and state sportsmen’s caucuses are the core of the legislative front protecting and advancing hunting, angling, recreational shooting and trapping and professional fish and wildlife management in state legislatures, which has led to some major victories within this region. As a complement to NASC, the bipartisan Governor’s Sportsmen’s Caucus was launched in 2009 to facilitate communications between and among the now 30 member governors and their respective NASC caucuses.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) looks forward to continuing its work with the legislative sportsmen’s caucuses and GSC members in the Mid-Atlantic region during the 2025 legislative session to protect and promote sportsmen and women’s initiatives. Sportsmen and women are the boots-on-the-ground conservationists, and it is imperative that our state policymakers continue to work on behalf of this vast constituency.
