II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 537
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. D
AINES(for himself, Mr. MORAN, Mr. SULLIVAN, Mr. CASSIDY, Mr.
T
ILLIS, Mr. CRAPO, Mr. RISCH, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. BARRASSO, Mr. SCOTT
of Florida, Mr. L
ANKFORD, Mr. TUBERVILLE, Mr. LEE, Mr. BOOZMAN,
Mr. M
ARSHALL, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. WICKER, Mrs. FISCHER, Mr.
S
HEEHY, Mr. ROUNDS, Mrs. BRITT, Mr. CRAMER, Mr. COTTON, Mr.
J
USTICE, Mr. HAGERTY, Mr. HOEVEN, Mrs. HYDE-SMITH, Mr. THUNE,
Mrs. C
APITO, and Mr. BUDD) introduced the following bill; which was
read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public
Works
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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•S 537 IS
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protecting Access for 2
Hunters and Anglers Act of 2025’’. 3
SEC. 2. PROTECTING ACCESS FOR HUNTERS AND ANGLERS 4
ON FEDERAL LAND AND WATER. 5
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in section 6
20.21 or 20.108 of title 50, Code of Federal Regulations 7
(as in effect on the date of enactment of this Act), and 8
subsection (b), the Secretary of the Interior, acting 9
through the Director of the United States Fish and Wild-10
life Service or the Director of the Bureau of Land Man-11
agement, and the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through 12
the Chief of the Forest Service (referred to in this section 13
as the ‘‘applicable Secretary’’), may not— 14
(1) prohibit the use of lead ammunition or tack-15
le on Federal land or water that is— 16
(A) under the jurisdiction of the applicable 17
Secretary; and 18
(B) made available for hunting or fishing 19
activities; or 20
(2) issue regulations relating to the level of lead 21
in ammunition or tackle to be used on Federal land 22
or water described in paragraph (1). 23
(b) E
XCEPTION.—Subsection (a) shall not apply to 24
a prohibition or regulations described in that subsection 25
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•S 537 IS
that are limited to a specific unit of Federal land or water, 1
if the applicable Secretary determines that— 2
(1) a decline in wildlife population at the spe-3
cific unit of Federal land or water is primarily 4
caused by the use of lead in ammunition or tackle, 5
based on the field data from the specific unit of Fed-6
eral land or water; and 7
(2) the prohibition or regulations, as applicable, 8
are— 9
(A) consistent with the law of the State in 10
which the specific Federal land or water is lo-11
cated; 12
(B) consistent with an applicable policy of 13
the fish and wildlife department of the State in 14
which the specific Federal land or water is lo-15
cated; or 16
(C) approved by the applicable fish and 17
wildlife department of the State in which the 18
specific Federal land or water is located. 19
(c) F
EDERALREGISTERNOTICE.—The applicable 20
Secretary shall include in a Federal Register notice with 21
respect to any prohibition or regulations that meet the re-22
quirements of paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (b) 23
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an explanation of how the prohibition or regulations, as 1
applicable, meet those requirements. 2
Æ
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