Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Chair, I thank the gentleman for yielding and for his work on behalf of American sportsmen.

Madam Chair, three overarching goals should guide our Federal land policy. First, to restore public access to the public lands; second, to restore sound and proven scientific management to the public lands; and finally, to restore the Federal Government as a good neighbor to the local communities impacted by the public lands.

This measure does all three. It removes the arbitrary and capricious restrictions that are increasingly imposed on hunting and fishing by various Federal agencies; it enlists sportsmen in the long-neglected management of overpopulated species; and it gives more funds to States for recreational activities on public lands while encouraging greater participation by the public in developing these policies.

Outdoor sporting activities, including hunting and fishing and recreational shooting, are deeply engrained in the fabric of America's culture and heritage that are now under attack by the radical left.

In 2011, over 37 million Americans hunted or fished across the country. These traditional outdoor activities contributed over $90 billion to the U.S. economy in 2011, much of it in the gateway communities to our public lands. Unfortunately, Federal agencies like the Forest Service and the BLM often prevent or impede public access for outdoor sporting activities. This is a large and growing class of complaints that my office fields in a district that includes five national forests in the Sierra Nevada of California.

One of the key provisions of this bill will increase and sustain access for hunting and fishing and recreational shooting on public lands by implementing an ``open until closed'' management policy. It also requires Federal agencies to report to Congress on any closures of Federal lands to these pursuits. Another provision would provide State and Federal coordination to create and maintain recreational shooting ranges on the Federal lands.

This bill protects the property rights of those who have acquired ivory products and other trophies over generations, long before any of this hunting was banned, and often passed on down through the generations within a family. It does absolutely nothing to imperil the protected species under current laws.

The purpose of the public lands can be found in the original Yosemite Grant Act of 1864: public use, resort, and recreation for all time. The SHARE Act recognizes our Nation's hunting and fishing heritage; it strengthens the fundamental right of public use; it secures the vital role that recreational hunting and fishing play in resource management; and it guarantees the freedom to sustain that heritage for the many generations of Americans to come.

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