PITTMAN-ROBERTSON ACT UNDER ATTACK

 Pittman-Robertson Act Under Attack-

Everyone who cares about wildlife should join us.

The PR Act, as it’s often referred to, is under attack by some legislators who see the funding of the Pittman-Robertson Act as an affront to the Second Amendment, the right to bear arms. The proposed (by Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga.) act, called the RETURN Act, wants to do away with the excise tax and thus the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act.

In 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed into law the landmark legislation. This legislation, named for the two senators who championed it, specifically outlined how funds collected from the sale of firearms, ammunition, and archery equipment, were to be allocated to the states for the purpose of wildlife restoration and enhancement.

Last year, Pittman-Robertson and the Sportfish Restoration Act, known as Dingell-Johnson, combined to bring in $1.5 billion for conservation. Currently, those funds go into a USFWS account called the Wildlife Restoration Trust Fund. Some of the money is earmarked for Hunter Education, target range construction, and projects that require cooperation among several states. The bulk of the money is divided among the 50 states based on each state’s land area and the number of paid hunting and fishing license holders.

Pennsylvania will receive more than $47.6 million in federal wildlife and fish restoration funds announced recently by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Pennsylvania Game Commission will see $38,340,930 from the Wildlife Restoration Program. The total amount allocated to the states and territories for 2022 is more than $1.1 billion.

It is said that the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act has been one of the greatest things to happen to wildlife conservation. Since its inception, over $10 billion has been awarded to the states. It is allocated based on two things: the number of licensed hunters and the area (square miles) of the state.

This act, H.R. 8167, proposes, under the guise of protecting Second Amendment Rights, to gut the most successful wildlife conservation funding model in history, putting politics above wildlife. Gun manufacturers have never asked that the excise tax be removed and 43 national wildlife-based organizations, including the Big Woods Hare Hunters of the Allegheny, have joined under one banner decrying this potentially devastating act. Everyone who cares about wildlife should join us.