The House passed a sportsmen’s bill Friday that would expand hunting on federal lands, including the reversal of restrictions on target practice and shooting ranges.
It passed the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act, or SHARE Act, 242-161.
Rep. Rob Bishop of Utah, the Republican chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said the bill is a response to decades of “abusive federal restrictions for anglers and hunters on federal lands.” In particular, he said the bill supports the Second Amendment right to bear arms.
“The SHARE Act protects Second Amendment rights and ensures reliable access to recreation on federal lands for future generations,” Bishop said.
Bishop’s office said presidents have used their authority under the Antiquities Act in previous decades to “unilaterally” close 885,273 acres of federal lands for target shooting, citing statistics from the Bureau of Land Management.
The White House supports most of the what the bill tries to do, although it said this week that it has a number of concerns involving provisions that would roll back environmental siting requirements. It also does not support provisions “which would prohibit the secretary of the Army from promulgating or enforcing any regulations that would prohibit the possession of firearms at water resources development projects with limited exceptions.”
The White House says other provisions would interfere with the Obama administration’s “ongoing efforts to combat poaching and trafficked ivory.” While other provisions would “potentially create public safety issues by restricting the ability of the secretary of Agriculture and Forest Service chief to regulate certain hunting and fishing activities within the National Forest System.”
Nevertheless, the White House said ahead of the bill’s passage that it would like to continue working with Congress to address these concerns and did not threaten a veto.
