Senators Urge FWS to Not Ban Lead Ammo and Tackle

North Dakota U.S. Senator John Hoeven this week joined Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) in urging director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Martha Williams not to restrict the use of lead ammo and tackle on U.S. public lands.

"Policies or actions that reduce or limit sportsmen activities necessarily implicate wildlife conservation programs by affecting state agencies' revenue," wrote the senators. "Such policies or actions also handcuff wildlife managers by removing a critical conservation tool while needlessly alienating one of our original conservationists, sportsmen. Phasing-out lead ammo and tackle on wildlife refuges would disproportionately affect lower-income households and those that depend on hunting and fishing for their subsistence as lead alternatives are often more expensive. The impact of such a policy would be devastating to the sportsmen heritage in our states."

In addition to Hoeven and Daines, the letter is signed by Senators Shelley Moore Capito (W. Va.), John Boozman (Ark.), Mike Braun (Ind.), Richard Burr (N.C.), Bill Cassidy (La.), Kevin Cramer (N.D.), Mike Crapo (Idaho), Bill Hagerty (Tenn.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.), John Kennedy (La.), James Lankford (Okla.), Cynthia Lummis (Wyo.), Roger Marshall (Kan.), Jim Risch (Idaho), Mike Rounds (S.D.), Rick Scott (Fla.), Dan Sullivan (Alaska), John Thune (S.D.), Thom Tillis (N.C.), Roger Wicker (Miss.), Josh Hawley (Mo.), Jim Inhofe (Okla.), John Barrasso (Wyo.), Pat Toomey (PA), and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).