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SHARE Act passes the House

The Sportsmen's Heritage and Recreational Enhancement Act has passed the House and been passed on to the Senate.

Its most prominent feature (at least as I see it) is one that takes a bit of explaining. Currently, BLM and Forest Service lands are under a statutory default condition of "no" on the question of hunting and recreational shooting: the agencies must act in order to allow it. The bill would reverse that: hunting and rec shooting are allowed unless the agency acts to restrict them.

This actually has a major real-world impact. When an agency acts it must comply with a number of legal restrictions -- NEPA analysis, Endangered Species Act analysis, internal policy requirements, generally publication of a proposed rule in the Federal Register, receipt of comments, and then publication of a final rule. All of those can be challenged in court. When an agency doesn't act, it's subject to none of those. Right now, with the default condition of "no use allowed," every time an agency wants to allow hunting or rec shooting it has to go to some work and experience legal risk. If the statutory default is "use allowed," then it has to go to some work and experience legal risk only when it wants to restrict the activities.