Please Help To Keep The
"Conservative News and Views"
on FR coming by "Clicking Here"!!
Sponsoring FReepers are contributing
$10 Each time a New Monthly Donor signs up!
Get more bang for your FR buck!
Click Here To Sign Up Now!
Posted on 04/17/2012 6:50:44 PM PDT by neverdem
The House on Tuesday passed legislation giving hunters and fishing enthusiasts access to certain public lands to pursue their sport and also blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from banning lead for use in ammunition and fishing tackle.
The Sportsmen’s Heritage Act passed on a mostly party line vote of 274 yeas and 146 nays.
Republicans argued that the ability of sportsmen and women to fish and shoot on public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Forest Service is being threatened by the Obama administration and environmentalists through bureaucratic regulations.
Republicans also said that banning lead bullets and tackle would cause economic harm to the recreation industry and kill jobs.
“It would be a massive power grab by the EPA without a clear lack of legal authority, but has that ever stopped the EPA under this administration? Sadly, it hasn’t,” said Rep. Doc Hastings (R–Wash.) chairman of the House Resources Committee.
The bill recognizes hunting and fishing as historic and traditional recreational activities on public land and requires the federal bureaucracy to support those rights, said Rep. Rob Bishop (R–Utah), chairman of the Resources subcommittee on national parks, forests and public lands.
“It’s simple language: if agencies in the bureaucracy of Washington want some areas of land closed to the public for recreation, they have to have a darned good reason to do it,” Bishop said.
Hastings and Bishop cited an article in U.S. News and World Report stating the proposal to ban hunting on BLM land was in response to urbanites that “freak out” when they hear gunfire, and that the decision was an effort to reduce “social conflict.”
“I suggest that is not a logical reason why these rights should be prohibited,” Bishop said.
Federal managers are treating the public lands as their “personal fiefdoms” rather than managing the vast properties for public use, Hastings said.
The public outcry following the BLM threat forced Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to abandon the plan. “However, nothing prevents a future bureaucratic maneuver to limit access,” Hastings said.
Democrats opposed the bill and called it a tool of the gun lobby.
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D–Ariz.) argued that the greatest threats to hunting and fishing do not come from federal land managers, but from development, pollution and destruction of wildlife habitat.
“The problem this bill claims to solve actually does not exist,” Grijalva said. “This bill is intended to wrap (land managers) in red tape and intimidate them… and to score political points with outside groups.”
Federal law already bans the EPA from regulating lead ammunition, however, more than 100 environmental groups petitioned the agency last month to ban it claiming the lead can poison those who eat wild game shot with the ammunition, or other animals that accidentally ingest the metal in dead carcasses.
“There is no scientific evidence for their position,” Hastings said. “So this (bill) makes it crystal clear Congress has primacy on this issue and it should be respected.”
If the House can stop the EPA, why don’t they do it more?
Hell yeah! Resist tyranny everywhere it presents itself.
Great news. Glad they passed it, but.....
““So this (bill) makes it crystal clear Congress has primacy on this issue and it should be respected.””
Congress primacy is every bit as important an issue as we the people face off against this Leftist anti Congress, Ex-Order Administration.
Johnson (IL) and Dold need to be primaried.
Thanks neverdem.
They didn’t block the EPA from doing anything. This will probably not see the light of day in the Senate nor will Obama sign it.
Stupid headline.
Next up: Costly lead abatement from soil required at all outdoor ranges.
Lead does not leach out in a normal environment.
Thank the Lord! Now about comment 2, I agree, where ate the stones on the test of the EPA BS!?
You fail to realize that the house has the power to stop whatever they choose to, by simply refusing the funds to do it.
Its all a question of determination.
They got the Coburn Amendment passed. Concealed carry in national parks is a reality. A lot of rat senators up this year will want to sign it.
Because it’s just election year pandering and posturing. This bill is a safe vote and will go nowhere in the Senate.
It’s dead, Jim.
The House could 'zero' their funding. Why don't they do it?
“Lead does not leach out in a normal environment.”
Don’t you know that science, regardless of the facts, does not matter...an idiot at Tulane is after tungsten because it was used as a replacement for Pb in ammo and sinkers. She doesn’t care about science, only her politics. She protested Newt when he spoke at Tulane. She doesn’t believe in free speech either.
What I know is that the EPA has been after us for years and they cant prove any elevated lead levels in water or food.
Shit, we’d all be brain dead if lead leached out in water under like 300°
This is a very good thing. Now to imprison those sad ____ that okayed Fast and Furious/Gunwalker. Stick them in a Mexican prison; one where family members were murdered by the Sinaola cartels thanks to some of the SOB’s in our leadership like the racsist AG and others.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.