STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 4802 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY February 6, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. E. BROWN, SIMPSON, SLATER, DURSO, LEMONDES, BRABENEC, MANKTELOW, GANDOLFO, McDONOUGH, TAGUE, MAHER, MIKULIN, NOVAKHOV, ANGELINO, GRAY, BLUMENCRANZ, DeSTEFANO, CHANG, K. BROWN, DiPIETRO -- read once and referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to authorizing free fishing, hunting, and trapping licenses to certain individuals The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 2 of section 11-0715 of the environmental 2 conservation law, as amended by section 4 of part R of chapter 58 of the 3 laws of 2013, is amended to read as follows: 4 2. (a) A member of the Shinnecock tribe or the Poospatuck tribe or a 5 member of the six nations, residing on any reservation wholly or partly 6 within the state, is entitled to receive free of charge a fishing 7 license, a hunting license, a muzzle-loading privilege, a trapping 8 license, and a bowhunting privilege; 9 [a] (b) A resident of the state who is a member of the United States 10 armed forces in active service who is not stationed within the state and 11 has not been herein longer than thirty days on leave or furlough, is 12 entitled to receive free of charge a fishing license, a hunting license, 13 and a trapping license; 14 [a] (c) A resident of the state who is an active member of the organ- 15 ized militia of the state of New York as defined by section one of the 16 military law, or the reserve components of the armed forces of the 17 United States, and excluding members of the inactive national guard and 18 individual ready reserve, is entitled to receive free of charge a fish- 19 ing license, a hunting license, and a trapping license; [and 20 a] (d) A resident who is blind is entitled to receive a fishing 21 license free of charge. For the purposes of this subdivision a person is EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD01821-01-5
A. 4802 2 1 blind only if either: [(a) his or her] such person's central visual 2 acuity does not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses, 3 or [(b) his or her] such person's visual acuity is greater than 20/200 4 but is accompanied by a limitation of the field of vision such that the 5 widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than 20 6 degrees[.]; 7 (e) A resident in the state for a period of thirty days immediately 8 prior to the date of application who has attained the age of seventy is 9 entitled to receive a fishing license, a trapping license, and a hunting 10 license, at a cost of five dollars for each license[.]; 11 (f) A resident in the state for a period of thirty days immediately 12 prior to the date of application who has attained the age of seventy is 13 entitled to receive free of charge a bowhunting privilege and a muzzle- 14 loading privilege[.]; and 15 (g) A resident of the state who demonstrates in a manner acceptable to 16 the department that they were a participant in the World Trade Center 17 rescue, recovery, or cleanup, as defined in section one hundred sixty- 18 one of the workers' compensation law and suffered a permanent disabili- 19 ty, as defined in subdivision twenty-one of section two hundred ninety- 20 two of the executive law, is entitled to receive free of charge a 21 fishing license, a hunting license, and a trapping license. 22 § 2. This act shall take effect September 1, 2026.