[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3663 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 3663

  To amend the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to establish additional 
    prohibitions on shooting wildlife from aircraft, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           September 25, 2007

  Mr. George Miller of California (for himself, Mr. Dingell, and Mr. 
    Dicks) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to establish additional 
    prohibitions on shooting wildlife from aircraft, and for other 
                               purposes.

    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 ``Protect America's Wildlife Act of 
2007''.

SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO PROHIBITIONS.

    Section 13(a) of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742j-
1(a)) is amended--
            (1) by striking ``or'' after the semicolon at the end of 
        each of paragraphs (1) and (2);
            (2) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the following:
            ``(3) shoots or attempts to shoot any bird, fish, or other 
        animal before 3:00 a.m. following a day on which the person has 
        traveled by aircraft other than on a regularly scheduled 
        commercial aircraft;
            ``(4) knowingly participates in using an aircraft for any 
        purpose referred to in paragraph (1), (2), or (3); or
            ``(5) knowingly violates any regulation issued under this 
        Act;''; and
            (3) in the matter following paragraph (5) (as added by this 
        section) by striking ``$5,000'' and inserting ``$50,000''.

SEC. 3. EXCEPTIONS TO PROHIBITIONS.

    Section 13(b) of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742j-
1(b)) is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(3) Except as provided in paragraph (5), a State may not 
authorize or undertake any action otherwise prohibited under this Act, 
for the purpose of increasing any game population or for the purpose of 
sport hunting.
    ``(4) Notwithstanding subsection (a), a State may shoot any wolf, 
bear, or other predator from an aircraft to prevent a biological 
emergency, if--
            ``(A) the head of the State's fish and wildlife agency 
        determines, based on the best scientific data available, that a 
        biological emergency is imminent and there is no other means 
        available to eliminate the biological emergency;
            ``(B) the shooting is conducted by an officer or employee 
        of the State fish and wildlife agency or of the United States 
        Department of Agriculture;
            ``(C) the shooting occurs only in the specific geographical 
        area where the biological emergency exists; and
            ``(D) the shooting removes only the minimum number of 
        predators necessary to eliminate the biological emergency.
    ``(5) The Secretary of the Interior may authorize an action that is 
referred to in paragraph (1) to prevent the extinction of any species 
that is listed as an endangered species or threatened species under 
section 4(c) of the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1533(c)), 
if the Secretary determines that there is no other means available to 
address the threat of extinction.''.

SEC. 4. DEFINITION OF BIOLOGICAL EMERGENCY.

    Section 13(c) of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742j-
1(c)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(c) As used in this section:
            ``(1) The term `aircraft' means any contrivance used for 
        flight in the air.
            ``(2) The term `biological emergency' means an irreversible 
        decline in a wildlife population caused by a predator 
        population.''.

SEC. 5. CITIZEN SUITS.

    Section 13 of the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742j-1) 
is amended by adding at the end the following:
    ``(g) Any person may commence a civil action on the person's own 
behalf--
            ``(1) against any person, including the United States and 
        any other governmental instrumentality or agency, to the extent 
        permitted by the eleventh amendment to the Constitution, who is 
        alleged to be in violation of this Act; or
            ``(2) against the Secretary if there is alleged a failure 
        of the Secretary to perform any act or duty under this Act that 
        is not discretionary with the Secretary.''.
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