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Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation Conducts Sportsmen’s Roundtable with U.S. Senate Republican Policy Committee

Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation Conducts Sportsmen’s Roundtable with U.S. Senate

Congressional Sportsmen

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) President Jeff Crane and U.S. Senator John Thune, Chairman of the U.S Senate Republican Policy Committee and Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Co-Chair, conducted a roundtable meeting with sportsmen’s groups and CSC Republican Senators yesterday to discuss issues of importance to the sportsmen’s community.

Leaders of the major hunting, fishing and wildlife conservation organizations and the outdoor industry gathered with Republican Senators in the U.S. Senate Russell Building to discuss a wide range of topics that are top of mind within the sportsmen’s community, including: conservation funding, lead ammunition and fishing tackle, Making Public Lands Public, state management of wolves, the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund, the 2012 Farm Bill, the National Fish Habitat Conservation Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Act and national ocean policy.

“Working hand in hand every day like we do with the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus on issues of importance to sportsmen, we thought it wise to bring many of these companies and organizations that support and work alongside us together with members of the Caucus to present their views on these important issues directly to the participating Senators,” said Crane.

CSC members interacting with sportsmen’s leaders yesterday included: Sen. Thune, CSC Vice-Chair Sen. Jim Risch, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Sen. John Boozman, Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Jerry Moran, Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. John Hoeven, Sen. Mike Johanns and Sen. Mike Lee.

“As co-chair of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus, I was pleased to work with the Caucus to bring together several Republican Senators and the national leadership of nearly all of the major hunting, fishing, and conservation organizations for a roundtable discussion,” said Thune.

“This event provided attendees an opportunity to meet face-to-face with Senators to discuss current and proposed legislation, as well as hunting, fishing, conservation, and outdoor recreation priorities.”

CSF Board Members Steve Sanetti of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Bob Model of Boone & Crockett, Tommy Millner of Cabela’s, and Jeff Angers of the Center for Coastal Conservation, along with other representatives of a wide range of sportsmen’s groups were able to voice the importance of these topics to their members and customers who are part of the over 40 million Americans who hunt and fish every year.

About:
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2009. Throughout this time, CSF has maintained a singleness of purpose that has guided the organization to become the most respected and trusted hunting and fishing organization in the political arena. Visit: www.sportsmenslink.org

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Safari Club International Taking Hunters’ Message to Capitol Hill
SCI Members Meet with Congress to Discuss Hunters’ Rights

Fix the Endangered Species Act

Safari Club International

Washington, D.C. –-(Ammoland.com)- Safari Club International (SCI) members will participate in more than 170 meetings this week with members of the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate on behalf of hunters everywhere.

Safari Club International’s lobby day on Capitol Hill represents the largest annual gathering of U.S. hunters in Washington, DC. This year’s focus will be on working with Congress to modernize the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to better manage species recovery and address the Act’s numerous failures.

The ESA was originally intended to help recover species at risk of extinction, but unfortunately the ESA has failed in its species recovery efforts. Currently there are over 2000 species listed as “threatened” or “endangered” while only 20 recovered species have been removed from these lists since the ESA was enacted.

In addition, scientific decisions for species conservation are inappropriately being made by the courts and not by the wildlife professionals within the federal agencies tasked to administer the ESA. The ESA also has a detrimental impact on jobs and the economy, particularly in rural communities, and imposes unnecessary and burdensome requirements. Radical anti-hunting and protectionist organizations have spent millions of dollars in an effort to manipulate the mandates of the ESA to list animals for the express purpose of regulating greenhouse gases. This extreme agenda is diverting the scarce resources of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lawyers and legal fees, rather than to conservation and species recovery.

“SCI’s 53,000 worldwide members – particularly the 200 that will be traveling to Washington this week – are insisting that Congress take real action to reform the Endangered Species Act,” said SCI President Dr. Larry Rudolph. “Since the late 1980s, there have been over one hundred Congressional hearings on the ESA as well as dozens of public ‘listening sessions’ across the country. It is time to actually update and modernize the Endangered Species Act so that we can do a better job in recovering species.”

Other legislative priorities SCI members will be discussing and supporting this week include:

• H.R. 1558/S. 838 – Hunting, Fishing, and Recreational Shooting Protection Act
• H.R. 1445 – Outdoor Sports Protection Act
• H.R. 1444 – Federal Management Plans include Hunting
• H.R. 991 – Importation Permits For Polar Bear Conservation
• H.R. 990 – Restoration of the U.S.-Russia Polar Bear Conservation Fund Act of 2011
• H.R. 838 – Western Great Lakes Wolf Management Act
• H.R. 509/S. 249 – National Wolf Delisting
• Contact: Nelson Freeman, Media@safariclub.org

About the Hunters’ Defense Fund:
Safari Club International Hunters’ Defense Fund supports the important advocacy, conservation and legal work keeping hunters afield and promoting hunting worldwide. Donations to the Hunters’ Defense Fund have a direct impact on our freedom to hunt, wildlife conservation policy and important legislative, regulatory and legal issues. DONATE NOW: www.safariclub.org/hunterdefense

Safari Club International:
First For Hunters is the leader in protecting the freedom to hunt and in promoting wildlife conservation worldwide. SCI’s approximately 200 Chapters represent all 50 of the United States as well as 106 other countries. SCI’s proactive leadership in a host of cooperative wildlife conservation, outdoor education and humanitarian programs, with the SCI Foundation and other conservation groups, research institutions and government agencies, empowers sportsmen to be contributing community members and participants in sound wildlife management and conservation. Visit the home page www.safariclub.org or call (520) 620-1220 for more information.

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