Catching up on news from last week, Representative Dave Loebsack (D, IA-02) continued his pattern of voting for certain Republican bills aimed at undercutting federal regulations, especially in the environmental area (see also here). The latest example came when the U.S. House approved a bill “aimed at reducing the federal government’s restrictions on hunting, fishing and sport shooting on federal land.”
Reporting for The Hill, Pete Kasperowicz explained the concept behind H.R. 3590, the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act.
The bill is a collection of several Republican proposals that fit the broad theme of beating back environmental restrictions on the use of federal land. […]
Democrats’ biggest objection to the bill was language that would require the government to encourage these activities on federal land, which the Obama administration said goes too far by overriding environmental goals. For example, it says allowing recreational hunting, fishing and sport shooting cannot be considered a major factor affecting the environment, and that no additional consideration of environmental impacts are needed.
The bill scraps an existing conservation council and sets up a new advisory committee that would have to include the views of sportsmen on conservation issues. It also ensures people have the right to carry firearms on land owned by the Army Corps of Engineers – the Obama administration opposes these measures as well.
But Democrats seemed fine with other provisions, such as language boosting federal funds for states to establish and maintain shooting ranges, and provisions letting states issue conservation permits electronically.
The House debated this bill on February 5. Iowa’s four representatives split along party lines on two Democratic amendments: Bruce Braley (IA-01) and Loebsack both voted for Rush Holt’s proposal to let the government “consider climate change as a factor in whether to keep federal land open for hunting and fishing,” and Iowa’s Democrats also voted for voted for Peter DeFazio’s attempt to remove the environmental waivers from the bill. House Republicans including Representatives Tom Latham (IA-03) and Steve King (IA-04) voted down both amendments. A motion to recommit the bill (often the last chance to kill legislation in the House) also failed in a mostly party-line vote.
House members then approved the Sportsmen’s Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act by 268 votes to 154. Loebsack was among the 41 Democrats who supported the bill on final passage. Braley was among the 154 Democrats who voted no.
This bill may not go anywhere in the U.S. Senate, and even if it became law, it probably would not affect Iowa much, given that relatively little federal land is located here. However, I still consider the vote significant as an example of Loebsack occasionally aligning himself with anti-regulation Republicans.