[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 8830]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             CONGRESSIONAL SHOOT-OUT AND INDUSTRY CHALLENGE

  (Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as chairman 
of the Congressional Sportsmen's Caucus--the largest bipartisan caucus 
within the Halls of Congress--to talk about the recent May 16 
congressional shoot-out, a competition of sporting clays, skeet, and 
trap that pit Republican and Democrat Members of Congress against each 
other in a great afternoon of enjoying outdoor shooting sports.
  We had a bipartisan shoot. The Republican team won this year. I am 
just the chairman and team captain.
  I would like to say that I won one of the individual awards this 
year--I have in the past--but this year we had Members on our side that 
won. The top gun Member of Congress was Richard Hudson from North 
Carolina. The top shot Democrat was Tim Walz. The best shooter for 
skeet was Collin Peterson. The top sporting clays was a freshman Member 
from North Carolina, Ted Budd. I am saving the best for last: the top 
trap was none other than Don Young from Alaska.
  It is a great afternoon where we can honor the outdoor economy, the 
largest industry of the United States, serve the outdoors in a lot of 
ways, and the heritage of sportsmen outdoor community activity is 
critical to the American story.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gene Green), 
who is the Democrat co-chair.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, we have had this competitive 
shoot for a number of years, and I have to admit, this year I had a job 
fair at home, so I am going to turn it over to my vice chair, Marc 
Veasey, who was actually out there. It is a great competition between 
the Republicans and the Democrats, but we work together on a lot of 
other issues.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Veasey).
  Mr. VEASEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Houston, 
Representative Green, and I also thank the Republicans that participate 
in the shoot every year. Obviously, we all play to win every time and 
we take the competition very seriously. Democrats only lost by about 13 
shots this year. We actually did pretty good. So we are improving.
  I want to remind everybody that we work on issues like conservation, 
environmental issues, and other things where Democrats and Republicans 
can come together for the greater cause of the country. I want to 
remind the gentleman that next year we are going to find those 13 
shots.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman 
from Georgia (Mr. Austin Scott), who is Marc Veasey's co-chair on the 
caucus.
  Mr. AUSTIN SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I would like to remind my 
colleague that those shots were in my bag and on our side.
  We are going to win again next year. We always enjoy the friendship, 
and I look forward to seeing the gentleman again out there and standing 
up for the rights of sportsmen. I certainly appreciate his friendship 
and look forward to traveling again with him.
  Mr. DUNCAN of South Carolina. What a great event. It was a great 
opportunity for us to get together, get to know each other better, and 
spend some time in the outdoors.
  I invite all Members to join the caucus. Come and be a part of this 
next year. Republicans retain the trophy this year, and I hope we will 
next year.

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