FEDERAL AFFAIRS

During May and June, Congress focused almost entirely on one large omnibus tax and spending bill, so other RMEF priority bills, the Fix Our Forests Act and Wildlife Movement Through Partnerships Act, were on hold.

H.R. 1 – Budget Reconciliation Bill, aka One Big Beautiful Bill Act

Congress created an expedited spending and revenue process called “reconciliation” in the 1974 Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act, which gives it the ability to pass fiscally related legislation outside of the normal appropriations process and without being restrained by the Senate filibuster that requires 60 votes to overcome. Both Democrats and Republicans successfully used what has become a partisan process two dozen times since its creation when the individual parties controlled both Congress and the White House. Recent examples include the 2010 Affordable Care Act (Obama), 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (Trump), 2021 American Rescue Plan Act (Biden) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (Biden).

Republican majorities in the House and Senate spent all of May and June constructing H.R.1 primarily focused on taxes, immigration and border security, and publicly funded healthcare programs. However, the bill also contained sections on forestry, public lands and conservation programs.

Two public land sales proposals, ultimately kept out of the bill, occupied most of RMEF’s attention and that of other sportsmen and conservation groups. The first was a House Natural Resources Committee amendment that looked to sell or exchange roughly 500,000 acres of public land in Utah and Nevada. While it passed in committee, it became clear through RMEF’s lobbying that there was not strong support. All House Democrats and many House Republicans opposed the sales proposal, and the committee stripped it out before the larger bill reached the floor for a vote. The bill passed the House and went to the Senate.

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, introduced an even broader land sales proposal mandating the sale of 2 to 3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land in the West. In addition to lobbying Senators directly, RMEF created a call to action on its website and emailed its entire membership a portal link that crafted draft letters to their members of Congress. RMEF members generated a record number of messages, as did many other organizations, and flooded the phone lines with a clear message to oppose land sales in the reconciliation bill. Several Republican Senators publicly announced their opposition to the proposal, joining all the Democrats, ensuring its defeat. When the Senate parliamentarian ruled the proposal out of order, the Senate dropped the land sale provision and the final reconciliation bill passed 51-50, with the vice president breaking the tie.

A small part of the massive bill does affect RMEF’s mission. Those provisions include the following.

Farm Bill Conservation Programs

  • Voluntary Public Access Habitat Improvement Program (VPA-HIP): $70 million between FY25 and FY31
  • Agriculture Conservation Easement Program (ACEP): $625 million for FY26 with a steady increase to $700 million for FY31, $4.1 billion total
  • Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP): $2.655 billion for FY26 with a steady increase to $3.255 billion for FY31, $18.5 billion total
  • Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP): $1.3 billion for FY26 with a steady increase to $1.375 billion for FY31, $8.1 billion total
  • Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP): $425 million for FY26, $450 million each year from FY27 to FY31, $2.7 billion total

Forest Management and Timber Harvest

  • Between FY25 and FY36, USFS is directed to enter into 40 long-term (20 years) timber contracts with a private person or entity nationwide, and BLM is directed to enter into five long-term contracts
  • In 2026, USFS and BLM are directed to harvest timber with a volume exceeding 250 million board feet (MMBF) greater than the previous year and continue this trend until FY34. BLM is directed to harvest timber at a volume exceeding 20 MMBF greater than the previous year and continue this until trend until FY34.

Tax Stamp on Firearm Suppressors

  • The $200 tax stamp required by the National Firearms Act for suppressors will be repealed Jan. 1.

 

STATE AFFAIRS

Oregon Legislature: Oregon’s legislature wrapped up June 27, and RMEF priorities including a highway crossings policy bill in HB 2978, a higher wolf depredation rate bill in SB 777 and an ODFW budget bill in HB 5009 all passed. Hunting and fishing fees will increase because of HB 2342, so sportsmen will be picking up an increased portion of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) budget moving forward. Two bills with severe implications for state firearms dealers, HB 3075 and HB 3076, both died over budget implications. Budget cuts also prevented expansions for chronic wasting disease work at the state veterinary lab. In a very troubling move, the legislature passed a ban on beaver trapping on public lands in much of the state in HB 3932, undermining the scientific management of species by ODFW and the commission.

Ballot Measures in Oregon and Colorado: Extremists filed several ballot initiatives in Colorado. The latest, Initiative 98, would create a new commission to take over management of wildlife as well as increase state sales taxes to fund it, with a focus on “keystone” species (wolves, mountain lions, beavers) and with no input from farmers, ranchers, hunters or traditional wildlife management. In Oregon, IP28 continues to collect signatures (roughly 50,000) as the animal-rights activists behind it received $10,000 from PETA and several large donations from a donor in St. Petersburg, Russia. IP28 would make hunting, trapping, pest control, livestock slaughter and many veterinary practices explicitly illegal.

Washington Wildlife Commission: Recent history shows RMEF and other hunting organizations have a difficult time working with the Washington Fish and Wildlife Commission following the appointment of politically motivated commissioners by the previous governor. A series of commission actions appear political rather than based on science, including banning spring bear hunting seasons, rejecting a proposal to downgrade the state protection classification of gray wolves and an effort to redefine the state conservation policy. Emails and texts as part of a lawsuit by the Sportsmen’s Alliance suggest a coordinated political agenda on several issues. RMEF is not involved in the lawsuit, but continuing to improve the commission is of great interest to the organization.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission turnover: Marie Haskett’s term as the outfitter and guide representative on the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Commission expired. The big-game hunter, RMEF volunteer and backcountry outfitter filled an important role on a regulatory body that is increasingly disconnected from hunting and traditional wildlife management. Her replacement is Frances Silva Blayney, who reports owning a flyfishing business but is better known for her activism with Colorado Sierra Club. Gov. Polis also replaced at-large commissioner Karen Bailey with Dr. John Emerick, a retired ecology professor who serves as treasurer of Colorado Wild, a state wolf advocacy organization that helped narrowly pass a 2020 initiative that triggered the forced introduction of wolves into Colorado.