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. VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:03 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H556.IH H556 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 2 •HR 556 IH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Access for 4 Hunters and Anglers Act of 2025’’. 5 SEC. 2. PROTECTING ACCESS FOR HUNTERS AND ANGLERS 6 ON FEDERAL LAND AND WATER. 7 (a) I NGENERAL.—Except as provided in section 8 20.21 or 20.108 of title 50, Code of Federal Regulations 9 (as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act), and 10 subsection (b), the Secretary of the Interior, acting 11 through the Director of the United States Fish and Wild-12 life Service or the Director of the Bureau of Land Man-13 agement, and the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 14 the Chief of the Forest Service (referred to in this section 15 as the ‘‘applicable Secretary’’), may not— 16 (1) prohibit the use of lead ammunition or tack-17 le on Federal land or water that is— 18 (A) under the jurisdiction of the applicable 19 Secretary; and 20 (B) made available for hunting or fishing 21 activities; or 22 (2) issue regulations relating to the level of lead 23 in ammunition or tackle to be used on Federal land 24 or water described in paragraph (1). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:03 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H556.IH H556 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 3 •HR 556 IH (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 VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:03 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H556.IH H556 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB 4 •HR 556 IH an explanation of how the prohibition or regulations, as 1 applicable, meet those requirements. 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 06:03 Feb 13, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H556.IH H556 kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB