On the recordFebruary 25, 2016
I thank Mr. Wittman and Mr. Walz for working with our committee to bring this bipartisan bill together to protect hunting and shooting heritages. One of the things that I, as well as many of my colleagues, hear repeatedly from our constituents is the complaint that land management agencies have blocked access to Federal lands. That especially goes for hunters and anglers and target shooters. Our national monuments alone have already closed 928,000 acres to hunting and recreational shooting. Most of those areas are, unfortunately, easily accessible. You don't have to walk miles to try and get to them. There are some who condemn this by saying that the vast majority of public lands is still open for hunting and shooting. The problem is the proximity. The ones that are being closed are those that are easily accessible to especially those people who live in urban areas who don't have to go miles and miles to do it. In addition to that, the problem is that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service make no assessment on the impact of closing lands to shooters or to anglers. They don't identify where the displaced recreationalists are being able to go, how far they have to travel, or what kind of access would be available to them. At a minimum, this bill forces them to take that into consideration. I wish it were tougher language that would force them to make some kind of accommodations.…
