Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. MORAN. Mr. Speaker, today, I speak in support of the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act. This bill would amend the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act so that it explicitly states that school programs that train students ``in archery, hunting, or other shooting sports'' are eligible for Federal funding.
Currently, the Department of Education, under the Biden administration, has misinterpreted the phrase ``training in the use of a dangerous weapon'' so that classes for archery or hunting safety are being deemed as a violation of Federal law. This simply makes no sense.
If we use the Department of Education's wrongheaded and broad way of interpreting the definition of a ``weapon,'' then culinary classes might be next on the exclusion list since knives are used in those classes.
This bill would correct the Department of Education's misguided interpretation under the current statute by clarifying that archery and hunting courses are not teaching the training and the use of dangerous weapons and schools that choose to teach such courses cannot be stripped of their Federal funding.
I have been involved in classes that teach hunting and archery through organizations like the Boy Scouts, and I know firsthand that they teach and reinforce skills like responsibility, self-reliance, preparation, and attention to detail. They build self-esteem in young men and women and also reinforce the ideas of conservation and stewardship of our natural resources and instill a love and appreciation for the world that God created.
These classes also teach safety and responsibility relating to rifles and bows and arrows. All of these are skills and characteristics that we want in our children. Why misinterpret statutes to prevent classes that reinforce these skills and characteristics in our youth?
I proudly support the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act and urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of its passage to return local control to our school districts and to make right what is now currently wrong.
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