[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 4]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 5719-5720]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          INTRODUCTION TO H.R. 1443, H.R. 1444, AND H.R. 1445

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. PAUL C. BROUN

                               of georgia

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 8, 2011

  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.


[[Page 5720]]


  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.