House passes hunting legislation authored by Rep. Bob Latta

Cleveland Plain Dealer
By Sabrina Eaton
February 5, 2014

WASHINGTON, D.C. - A bill that would make it easier to hunt, shoot and film movies on federal lands and make it harder for the federal governments to ban lead bullets and fishing equipment passed the U.S. House of Representatives today in a 268 to 154 vote.

All Ohio Republicans backed the bill, along with Niles-area Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan. The rest of Ohio’s Democratic Congress members opposed it.

The measure authored by Bowling Green Republican Rep. Bob Latta was a compendium of hunting and fishing measures that were previously introduced by other members of Congress, including Holmes County Republican Rep. Bob Gibbs.

In a House of Representatives floor speech, Latta said the bill would be good for both the sporting and conservation communities. He noted that hunters and anglers spent over $90 billion nationwide in 2011.

“In my home state of Ohio, sportsmen and sportswomen spent $2.85 billion on hunting and fishing,” said Latta. That is more than the revenues for corn, the state's top-grossing agriculture commodity that year. “

While the bill had support from Democrats in the bipartisan Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, others objected that it would undermine existing environmental laws, and complained it was loaded with an array of unrelated provisions, like one that makes it easier to import polar bear trophies.

Oregon Democratic Rep. Peter DeFazio called its $200 limit on fees the federal government can charge small film crews “a solution in search of a problem” because there was no evidence that unreasonable fees were charged. He said nobody would object to some parts of the bill, but other provisions were “inappropriate and unnecessary.” He said the Senate has already said it won't take it up and the Obama administration also opposes it.

"We could, and it is much harder, agree on a bipartisan measure for reasonable measures to protect people's right to hunt and fish and bear arms, but we are not going to do that," said DeFazio. "So let's get on with the political show."

California Democratic Rep. Sam Farr said the top cause of death for endangered California condors is poisoning from consuming lead bullets in dead animals that have been shot by hunters. He said the bill would ban states like California from banning lead bullets to protect wildlife from poisoning.

Florida Republican Rep. Jeff Miller denied the bill would block states from banning lead ammunition, and said it would merely prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from expanding its authority into an area that fish and wildlife agencies should manage.

“What the several antihunting and antifishing groups who insist on the expansion fail to recognize is that the ammunition, firearms and tackle industries, along with sportsmen and woman, are the ones that are footing the bill to manage, protect and create the same species’ habitat that they claim they are trying to save,” said Miller.

Gibbs spoke in favor of a provision of the bill that he authored that would let people with concealed carry licenses bring their weapons onto the 11.7 million acres around the country overseen by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“Gun owners need to be able to exercise their Second Amendment rights when they are legally camping, hunting and fishing on Army Corps projects,” said Gibbs.