WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Steve Daines (R-MT) this week led a group of their Senate Republican colleagues in urging Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Martha Williams not to cave to activists’ calls to restrict the use of lead ammunition and tackle on public lands.

“Policies or actions that reduce or limit sportsmen activities necessarily implicate wildlife conservation programs by affecting state agencies’ revenue. Such policies or actions also handcuff wildlife managers by removing a critical conservation tool while needlessly alienating one of our original conservationists, sportsmen. Phasing-out lead ammo and tackle on wildlife refuges would disproportionately affect lower-income households and those that depend on hunting and fishing for their subsistence as lead alternatives are often more expensive. The impact of such a policy would be devastating to the sportsmen heritage in our states,” the senators wrote.

Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Mike Braun (R-IN), Richard Burr (R-NC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Bill Hagerty (R-TN), John Hoeven (R-ND), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Jim Risch (R-ID), Mike Rounds (R-SD), Rick Scott (R-FL), Dan Sullivan (R-AK), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Jim Inhofe (R-OK), Pat Toomey (R-PA), John Barrasso (R-WY) and Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined Boozman and Daines in sending the letter.

Read the full letter here.