{"id":96708,"date":"2023-10-11T01:44:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-11T06:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=96708"},"modified":"2023-10-11T01:44:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-11T06:44:57","slug":"96708","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/?p=96708","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Biden Signs Law Restoring Funding to Hunter Safety Programs in Schools<\/a><\/p>\n

Congress and President Joe Biden have undone a mess of their own making.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Biden signed the\u00a0Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act<\/a>\u00a0into law. Congress passed the law nearly unanimously. The legislation restores funding for school hunting and archery training courses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe benefits of hunter education and archery programs should be fully recognized as these classes teach future generations the important skills of public safety, confidence, and comradery,\u201d Representative Richard Hudson (R., N.C.), who sponsored the bill, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The law amends 2022\u2019s Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) to clarify that grants from the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act can be spent on hunting and archery programs. The overwhelming bipartisan support for funding firearms and archery training in schools demonstrates, at least, that the floor of support for hunting remains pretty high in American politics.<\/p>\n

The law stems from a dispute in the BSCA\u2019s language about whether federal funds can be spent on weapons training.\u00a0In April, the Department of Education published\u00a0an official guide<\/a>\u00a0that said it couldn\u2019t spend money on programs that provide \u201cto any person a dangerous weapon or training in the use of a dangerous weapon.\u201d Federal law\u00a0specifically labels<\/a>\u00a0any object\u00a0capable\u00a0of \u201ccausing death or serious bodily injury, except that such term does not include a pocket knife with a blade of less than 2\u00bd inches in length\u201d as a dangerous weapon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span>In August, the Education Department<\/span>\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>told Fox21<\/a>\u00a0it considered hunting, archery, and sports shooting programs ineligible for funding under the statutory language.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Department\u2019s interpretation of the BSCA was condemned by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including many who\u2019d voted for the bill.\u00a0<\/span>18 Senators, including eight Democrats and an Independent, sent\u00a0a letter<\/a>\u00a0to the Department in September arguing they never intended the funding language to be interpreted that way. They demanded funding for school hunting and archery programs be reinstated.<\/p>\n

<\/span>\u201cThe intent of<\/span>\u00a0section 13401 of BSCA was to preclude these funds from being used to purchase dangerous weapons for school staff or to train school staff in the use of dangerous weapons, with the recognition that ESEA funds should support student achievement, educational enrichment programs, and student well-being,\u201d they\u00a0wrote<\/a>. \u201cOther federal funds appropriated in the BSCA were intended to support evidence-based school safety and protective measures.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another bipartisan group of Senators\u00a0sent a letter<\/a>\u00a0to the leaders of the Senate Appropriations Committee asking them to create a legislative fix if the Department didn\u2019t change its mind. Between the two letters, the effort garnered support from a dozen Democrats, nine Republicans, and an Independent.<\/p>\n

Representative Hudson, who called the Department\u2019s interpretation of the language an \u201cattempt to push their radical agenda on our children,\u201d introduced his legislative fix in the House. That bill quickly gained bipartisan support and passed by a vote of 424 to 1. The Senate agreed to it unanimously. Now, President Biden has signed it into law.<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he President supports a legislative solution to ensure ESEA funding can be used for valuable school enrichment programs, such as hunter safety and archery,\u201d Stefanie Feldman, Director of the White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention,\u00a0tweeted<\/a>\u00a0after the House took up the bill.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Biden Signs Law Restoring Funding to Hunter Safety Programs in Schools Congress and President Joe Biden have undone a mess of their own making. On Friday, Biden signed the\u00a0Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act\u00a0into law. Congress passed the law nearly unanimously. The legislation restores funding for school hunting and archery training courses. \u201cThe benefits of … Continue reading “”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-96708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gun-schtuff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96708","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=96708"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96708\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":96709,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/96708\/revisions\/96709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=96708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=96708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesfortis.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=96708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}