Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I supported the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act when it came to the House last year, and I am glad it was indeed a bipartisan bill. It was passed in response to the horrific shootings that occurred in Uvalde, Texas, and in Buffalo, New York. However, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act was negotiated in a bipartisan manner in the Senate and then it came over to the House where we voted on it with no changes and sent it to the President for his signature.

In attempting to make clear that Title IV funds provided under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act through the ESEA could not be used to arm teachers or school staff, Senate negotiators used language stating that no funds could be used to provide to any person a dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.

Now, the term ``dangerous weapon'' is broadly defined. So in using this language, Senate negotiators inadvertently, I believe, precluded the use of funds by students for certain activities in school and extracurricular programs that were previously permitted prior to the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

The gentleman from Wisconsin has made the claim that it is the Department of Education that is misinterpreting the law. They, in fact, are following the law to the very letter. If we want to place some scrutiny, it should be on the Senate, which I believe drafted this language imprecisely which resulted in the need for this technical fix.

H.R. 5110 is an attempt to fix that language to permit the use of such items for students in school and extracurricular activities, and I am glad that we were able to work in a bipartisan manner once again to agree on the language that we are voting on today.

As this issue has come to light, many people have targeted the Department of Education as the problem, stating that the Department has misinterpreted congressional intent in applying the law. That is absolutely incorrect. The Department has been following the law as written and passed by Congress and signed by the President. Of course, we all remember that the President takes an oath to faithfully execute the laws of our country.

Today's legislation makes clear that we are not trying to preclude the use of items by students in the pursuit of educational and extracurricular activities, and the list in the example list in the legislative text is not exhaustive.

That said, the language would preclude ESEA funding from being used to arm teachers or school staff or train teachers or school staff in the use of dangerous weapons remains intact.

Mr. Speaker, I support H.R. 5110, the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act and urge my colleagues to do the same. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I just remind the chairwoman, the gentlewoman from North Carolina, that it was Congress that sent language in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act which proscribed the ability for these activities to occur in our schools, and to characterize faithfully executing the laws of our country as ``crackpot'' I think is quite off base.

The President and his administration support this technical fix that is being sought, and I support this technical fix. Congress needs to take care that we send language that reflects our intent.

I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hoyle).

Mr. Speaker, I will just point out again that the last speaker made the claim that it was a faulty interpretation by this administration. I would argue we sent a bill to the President that had a technical error. Let's place the onus of responsibility on a situation in which we had the choice of returning the bill back to the Senate with a technical correction, risking a potential derailment of a landmark bill.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act represents a significant step forward in terms of gun safety in our country. I will remind my colleagues that this was in the wake of the Uvalde shootings in Texas and the Buffalo shootings. The American people were demanding action from this Congress.

I think the decision was made to not return the bill to the Senate with a technical fix but to send it to the President. The Senate, in my estimation, could have done a better job of making sure this language was clearer, but the administration has been enforcing the law according to the legislative text that we sent them.

I will take a moment to talk about how significant this bill has been for our kids. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act included authorization for a lot of funding to address the mental health crisis that our students are facing across the country. This is also a bipartisan concern.

I will let this body know that in my own district, I have seen the schools respond in a magnificent way. One school district has directly hired clinical social workers. Instead of having to refer students out to nonexistent therapists in the community, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is enabling us to expand this model where school districts directly hire clinical social workers. In fact, this one school district that I am talking about has a clinical social worker assigned to every school. This has made access to mental health much easier. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act has made this happen. I will speak more on this as we continue the discussion.

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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on H.R. 5110, the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, I believe, passed, as the title would suggest, with bipartisan support. It was a significant step forward, although, in my estimation, not enough in terms of addressing the gun violence issue that we have in our country.

We have seen since the Uvalde shooting and the Buffalo shooting many more mass shootings occur in our country, and I believe the American people want to see more done.

Instead of just thoughts and prayers, we did pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which came with many provisions that address gun violence in our schools. The most significant element of the bill, in my estimation, is the broad and deep support for expanding access to mental health care for our young people. This is truly a great achievement.

I am very pleased that we are addressing the technical error that Congress made in drafting this language that it sent to the President. I am glad that we are correcting that today. I will point out that the President and his administration support this technical fix.

Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to vote for H.R. 5110, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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