Daily Archives: November 29, 2012

Sportsman’s Act Still Alive says KeepAmericaFishing

The Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 may yet again come up for vote in the U.S. Senate as members are working hard to craft a solution to the procedural problem that stopped the bill from passing the Senate. A diverse coalition of angling, hunting and conservation organizations is working hard to support this effort and eventual passage, but time is running out.

On November 26, in a surprise upset, the U.S. Senate failed to advance the Sportsmen’s Act of 2012 (S. 3525). After months of discussion with Senate members by a large and diverse coalition of angling, hunting and conservation organizations who worked to create a historic bill containing 17 key provisions for anglers, hunters and fish and wildlife conservation; the bill failed to pass over a party line vote on a procedural motion.

You can still make an impact and KeepAmericaFishing™ provides an easy way to send an effective message to Senate members. We need everyone’s support to help pass this essential piece of legislation.

This link www.KeepAmericaFishing.org/sportsmensact, takes you to a Take Action Now page.

Please help us convince the Senate to bring this bill back to the floor and vote YES for fish and wildlife conservation!

GOP stops Sportsmen’s bill on budget violation

by Ramsey Cox

Republicans stopped Sen. Jon Tester’s (D-Mont.) Sportsmen’s Act dead in its tracks Monday evening.

The Sportsmen’s Act, S. 3525, would have increased access to federal land for hunters and fishermen, while also supporting conservation measures, but Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) raised a budget point of order, saying Tester’s bill violated the Budget Control Act.

Democrats tried to waive the budget point of order, but the motion failed on a 50-44 vote – 60 votes were needed.

The Sportsmen’s Act combined more than a dozen bipartisan bills aimed at expanding access to federal land for hunters and fishermen. Sessions, ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, said he supports most of the Sportsmen’s bill, but said it contains Democratic language that appropriates new money, and urged his colleagues not to support it for that reason.

S. 3525 would have required $14 million in new federal spending, and thus, Sessions said, violated the spending levels set in the Budget Control Act (BCA).

Only two senators didn’t vote with their party. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) voted against the budget waiver, while Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) voted for it.