Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB556 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version Filed 02/14/2025

                            I 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 556 
To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture 
from prohibiting the use of lead ammunition or tackle on certain Federal 
land or water under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior 
and the Secretary of Agriculture, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY16, 2025 
Mr. W
ITTMAN(for himself, Mr. MCGUIRE, Mr. WEBERof Texas, Mr. AUSTIN 
S
COTTof Georgia, Ms. DELACRUZ, Mrs. WAGNER, Mr. BEANof Flor-
ida, Ms. T
ENNEY, Mr. CALVERT, Mr. ZINKE, Mr. STAUBER, Mr. 
E
DWARDS, Mr. NORMAN, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. GUEST, Mr. THOMPSON 
of Pennsylvania, Mr. M
OOLENAAR, Mr. ROGERSof Alabama, Mr. WEB-
STERof Florida, Mr. FINSTAD, Mr. MURPHY, Mr. NEWHOUSE, Mr. 
W
ALBERG, Mr. MOOREof Alabama, Mr. BIGGSof Arizona, Mrs. 
K
IGGANSof Virginia, Mr. FULCHER, Mr. BOST, Mr. HUDSON, Ms. 
H
AGEMAN, Ms. BOEBERT, Mr. CLINE, Mr. CARTERof Georgia, Mr. TIF-
FANY, Mr. WILLIAMSof Texas, Mr. BERGMAN, Mr. BALDERSON, Mr. 
M
ESSMER, Mrs. FISCHBACH, Mr. FITZGERALD, Ms. LETLOW, and Mr. 
F
LEISCHMANN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committee on 
Agriculture, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To prohibit the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary 
of Agriculture from prohibiting the use of lead ammuni-
tion or tackle on certain Federal land or water under 
the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior and the 
Secretary of Agriculture, and for other purposes. 
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•HR 556 IH
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Access for 4
Hunters and Anglers Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. PROTECTING ACCESS FOR HUNTERS AND ANGLERS 6
ON FEDERAL LAND AND WATER. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in section 8
20.21 or 20.108 of title 50, Code of Federal Regulations 9
(as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act), and 10
subsection (b), the Secretary of the Interior, acting 11
through the Director of the United States Fish and Wild-12
life Service or the Director of the Bureau of Land Man-13
agement, and the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 14
the Chief of the Forest Service (referred to in this section 15
as the ‘‘applicable Secretary’’), may not— 16
(1) prohibit the use of lead ammunition or tack-17
le on Federal land or water that is— 18
(A) under the jurisdiction of the applicable 19
Secretary; and 20
(B) made available for hunting or fishing 21
activities; or 22
(2) issue regulations relating to the level of lead 23
in ammunition or tackle to be used on Federal land 24
or water described in paragraph (1). 25
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(b) EXCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to 1
a prohibition or regulations described in that subsection 2
that are limited to a specific unit of Federal land or water, 3
if the applicable Secretary determines that— 4
(1) a decline in wildlife population at the spe-5
cific unit of Federal land or water is primarily 6
caused by the use of lead in ammunition or tackle, 7
based on the field data from the specific unit of Fed-8
eral land or water; and 9
(2) the prohibition or regulations, as applicable, 10
are— 11
(A) consistent with the law of the State in 12
which the specific Federal land or water is lo-13
cated; 14
(B) consistent with an applicable policy of 15
the fish and wildlife department of the State in 16
which the specific Federal land or water is lo-17
cated; or 18
(C) approved by the applicable fish and 19
wildlife department of the State in which the 20
specific Federal land or water is located. 21
(c) F
EDERALREGISTERNOTICE.—The applicable 22
Secretary shall include in a Federal Register notice with 23
respect to any prohibition or regulations that meet the re-24
quirements of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (b) 25
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•HR 556 IH
an explanation of how the prohibition or regulations, as 1
applicable, meet those requirements. 2
Æ 
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