'It's Not About The Health Of Human Beings': Rob Wittman Takes Down Argument Against Ammunition Bill

5 months ago

During a House Natural Resources Committee markup meeting before the Congressional recess, Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA) spoke about opposition to a bill that would ban lead in ammunition.

Transcript

00:00The bill and Mr. Chair, I will allow Mr. Whitman to have the remaining three minutes and 20 seconds

00:07of my time. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. To my colleagues that say that crustacea don't move,

00:15my son's a commercial fisherman. You ask him about his catch from a day-to-day basis to see if crabs

00:20aren't a dynamic critter and if they don't move from place to place. Now, shellfish are sessile,

00:26crustacea are not, so to somehow say that it's not like other animals out there is just not correct.

00:34And my colleague says that these decisions are not arbitrary, that they are indeed by the U.S.

00:40Fish and Wildlife Service based on science, then why would you object to this bill? Because that's

00:44exactly what this bill says. It says the science should be unique to the decision about the facility,

00:50about the property. So if you are going to have a lead ban in California because you've sown through

00:56science that it has an effect on California condors, I don't see how that is going to have

01:00an impact on a wildlife refuge in Virginia. There should be studies in Virginia to go, well,

01:06what are the species there? How much lead is there? How much is being ingested? Is the lead itself

01:12actually in a form that can cause a problem with the health of the animal? That's the key with this.

01:18This is a matter of is it affecting the health of the animal? There was a reference here to the health

01:23of human beings. Listen, it's not about the health of human beings. Believe me, if you harvest an animal

01:31and it has lead in it, I've done this multiple times, you are not going to crunch through eating

01:36that lead pellet. You're going to take that lead pellet out. So it's not about human ingestion. This

01:41is about the health of the animals. And we need science to make sure that we are showing that there is

01:47indeed, first of all, a source of lead that's there from sportsmen. Second of all, that that lead is

01:54itself causing a problem in the health of these populations. Why wouldn't we want to use science?

02:01And why would we want carte blanche closures just to say, well, we're going to do this? Again, remember,

02:09these resources belong to the people of the United States. We have a responsibility to be

02:13to be responsible decision makers for them is to say, yes, we are going to limit access in how you

02:20are able to enjoy the fish and wildlife on these properties because there is an impact on the health

02:26of those animals. Nobody's objecting to that. I'm not objecting to that. And I acknowledge there is an

02:30impact of lead on animal health and human health. All I'm saying is let's make sure we have science to

02:37show the direct relationship there, which is about responsible decision making. And we have a number of

02:42organizations that are in favor of this bill, the Congressional Sportsman's Foundation, the American

02:46Sport Fishing Association, the backcountry hunters and anglers, just name a few of the groups that

02:51just are saying, hey, make sure you're thoughtful and responsible. We have an obligation to be

02:56transparent about how these decisions are made. I don't think any sportsman out there is going to

03:01object if they know we've gathered data, we've shown there's an impact here, we have no problem with

03:06being required to use lead, whether it's in fishing sinkers, fishing tackle, whether it's in

03:11ammunition. Those things are just about doing our job responsibly. We do it every other place in

03:17statutes across the federal government. Why should this area be any different? With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

'It's Not About The Health Of Human Beings': Rob Wittman Takes Down Argument Against Ammunition Bill

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