[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5612 Introduced in House (IH)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5612

 To recognize hunting heritage and provide opportunities for continued 
                    hunting on Federal public lands.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 10, 2002

Mr. Chambliss (for himself, Mr. Norwood, Mr. Pickering, Mr. Cunningham, 
 Mr. Hayes, Mr. Bishop, and Mr. Peterson of Minnesota) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To recognize hunting heritage and provide opportunities for continued 
                    hunting on Federal public lands.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hunting Heritage Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Recreational hunting is an important and traditional 
        recreational activity in which 14,000,000 Americans 16 years of 
        age and older participate.
            (2) Hunters have been and continue to be among the foremost 
        supporters of sound wildlife management and conservation 
        practices in the United States.
            (3) Persons who hunt and organizations related to hunting 
        provide direct assistance to wildlife managers and enforcement 
        officers of Federal, State, and local governments.
            (4) Purchases of hunting licenses, permits, and stamps and 
        excise taxes on goods used by hunters have generated billions 
        of dollars for wildlife conservation, research, and management.
            (5) Recreational hunting is an essential component of 
        effective wildlife management, in that it is an important tool 
        for reducing conflicts between people and wildlife and provides 
        incentives for the conservation of wildlife and habitats and 
        ecosystems on which wildlife depends.
            (6) Each State has established at least one agency staffed 
        by professionally trained wildlife management personnel, that 
        has legal authority to manage the wildlife in the State.
            (7) Recreational hunting is an environmentally acceptable 
        activity that occurs and can be provided for on Federal public 
        lands without adverse effects on other uses of that land and 
        water.

SEC. 3. RECREATIONAL HUNTING.

    (a) In General.--Subject to valid existing rights, Federal public 
lands shall be open to access and use for recreational hunting except--
            (1) as limited by the Federal agency with responsibility 
        for the Federal public lands--
                    (A) for reasons of national security;
                    (B) for reasons of public safety; or
                    (C) for reasons authorized in applicable Federal 
                statutes as reasons for closure; and
            (2) as recreational hunting is limited by any law or 
        regulation of the State in which the Federal public lands are 
        located.
    (b) Management.--The head of each Federal agency with authority to 
manage a natural resource or Federal public lands on which a natural 
resource depends shall exercise that authority, consistent with 
subsection (a), in a manner so as to support, promote, and enhance 
recreational hunting opportunities, to the extent authorized under 
State law and regulation and in accordance with applicable Federal law.
    (c) No Net Loss.--
            (1) In general.--Federal public land management decisions 
        and actions should, to the greatest extent practicable, result 
        in no net loss of land area available for hunting opportunities 
        on Federal public lands.
            (2) Annual report.--Not later than October 1 of each year, 
        the head of each Federal agency with authority to manage 
        Federal public lands on which recreational hunting occurs shall 
        submit to the Committee on Resources of the House of 
        Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural 
        Resources of the Senate a report describing--
                    (A) areas administered by the agency that have been 
                closed during the previous year to recreational hunting 
                and the reasons for such closure; and
                    (B) areas administered by the agency that were open 
                to recreational hunting to compensate for those areas 
                described under subparagraph (A).
            (3) Closures of 5,000 or more acres.--No withdrawal, change 
        of classification, or change of management status, that 
        effectively closes 5,000 or more acres of Federal public land 
        to access or use for recreational hunting may take effect, 
        unless the head of the Federal agency with authority to manage 
        the land has submitted written notice of the withdrawal or 
        change to both Houses of the Congress.
    (d) Areas Not Affected.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed to 
compel the opening to recreational hunting of national parks or 
national monuments administered by the National Park Service.
    (e) No Priority.--This section does not require a Federal agency to 
give preference to hunting over other uses of Federal public lands, or 
over land or water management priorities established in Federal law.
    (f) Authority of the States.--
            (1) Savings.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed as 
        affecting the authority, jurisdiction, or responsibility of the 
        several States to manage, control, or regulate fish and 
        resident wildlife under State law or regulations on land or 
        water within a State, including Federal public lands, nor as 
        implicitly preempting such State authority.
            (2) Federal licenses.--Nothing in this Act shall be 
        construed as authorizing the head of any Federal agency, or any 
        official of such an agency, to require licenses or permits to 
        hunt, fish, or trap on lands or waters within a State, 
        including on Federal public lands.
            (3) State right of action.--Any State aggrieved by the 
        failure of the head of a Federal agency or an official thereof 
        to comply with this subsection may file a civil action in the 
        United States District Court for the district in which the 
        alleged act in violation of this subsection occurred or is 
        occurring to enjoin permanently such act. The court may grant 
        preliminary injunctive relief in any such action if the 
        granting of such relief is appropriate under the facts on which 
        such action is based. A State which is a prevailing party in an 
        action pursuant to this paragraph shall be awarded its costs 
        and attorneys' fees.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Federal public lands.--The term ``Federal public 
        lands'' means any land or water, excluding any land held in 
        trust for the benefit of an Indian tribe or individual, that 
        is--
                    (A) publicly accessible;
                    (B) owned by the United States; and
                    (C) managed by an executive agency for purposes 
                including conserving natural resources.
            (2) Hunting.--The term ``hunting'' means the lawful 
        pursuit, trapping, shooting, capture, collection, or killing of 
        wildlife or the attempt to pursue, trap, shoot, capture, 
        collect, or kill wildlife.
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