WASHINGTON — Both houses of Congress came together in slow September to change provisions in the bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 that allowed the U.S. Department of Education to withdraw certain federal funding for schools that offer hunting, archery and other shooting sports education programs.
The House of Representatives passed the Hunting Heritage Protection and Education Act (H.R. 5110), a bipartisan bill, by a nearly unanimous vote of 424 to 1. A bipartisan group of senators passed a companion bill, the Defending Hunters’ Education Act (S. 2735), which passed the Senate unanimously.
Earlier this summer, the Education Department overly broadly interpreted provisions of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022 that sought to prohibit the training of teachers and other personnel in the utilize of lethal weapons to withdraw funding from the Elementary and Secondary Education Act for schools that offer hunting, archery, shooting and other school programs.
A bill authorizing the utilize of funds for hunting and archery education is awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature.
