I 
114TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 5650 
To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act to make funds 
available for management of fish and wildlife species of greatest conserva-
tion need as determined by State fish and wildlife agencies. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 6, 2016 
Mr. YOUNG of Alaska (for himself and Mrs. DINGELL) introduced the 
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 
A BILL 
To amend the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act 
to make funds available for management of fish and 
wildlife species of greatest conservation need as deter-
mined by State fish and wildlife agencies. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Recovering America’s 
Wildlife Act of 2016’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES. 
(a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 
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(1) a diverse array of species of fish and wild-
life is of significant value to the United States for 
many reasons, including aesthetic, ecological, edu-
cational, cultural, recreational, economic, and sci-
entific reasons; 
(2) more than 90 million citizens of the United 
States participate in outdoor recreation through 
hunting, fishing, birding, and other wildlife-depend-
ent recreation, all of which have significant value to 
the citizens who engage in those activities and pro-
vide economic benefits to local communities; 
(3) it is in the interest of the United States— 
(A) to retain for present and future gen-
erations the opportunity to hunt, fish, observe, 
understand, and appreciate a wide variety of 
fish and wildlife; 
(B) to recover species of fish and wildlife 
listed under the Endangered Species Act of 
1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.) requiring Fed-
eral protection, and to prevent fish and wildlife 
species from declining to the point of requiring 
Federal protection under that Act, by con-
serving species in greatest conservation need; 
and 
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(C) to support collaborative and proactive 
conservation that will sustain America’s diverse 
fish and wildlife populations; 
(4) hunters and anglers, including future Presi-
dent Theodore Roosevelt and naturalist George Bird 
Grinnell, were alarmed in the 1880–90s that game 
and sportfish could not sustain unregulated harvest, 
and that avifauna needed protection from commer-
cial take, and thus founded the first nongovern-
mental conservation organizations to instill fish and 
wildlife conservation values in hunters, anglers, bird 
watchers, and all citizens; 
(5) at the turn of the 20th century, the States 
realized the need to regulate harvest of game and 
sportfish for sustainable use, and required hunting 
and angling licenses of users, and established sea-
sons, bag and creel limits, and legal means of take 
for game and sportfish, using license dollars largely 
for enforcement of those regulations; 
(6) in 1937, an alliance between hunters and 
conservation organizations, the State governments, 
the Federal Government, and the shooting sports in-
dustry convinced Congress to transfer receipts from 
an existing Federal excise tax on sporting arms and 
ammunition to the States, matched by State hunting 
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license dollars, for the management of wildlife and 
conservation of habitat under the Pittman-Robertson 
Wildlife Restoration Act (16 U.S.C. 669 et seq.), 
which greatly enhanced the States ability to move 
from largely the enforcement of game seasons and 
bag limits into science-based research and manage-
ment of all wildlife; 
(7) similarly, in 1951, an alliance between an-
glers and conservation organizations, the State gov-
ernments, the Federal Government, and the sport- 
fishing industry, convinced Congress to impose a 
Federal excise tax on fishing equipment under the 
Dingell-Johnson Sportfish Restoration Act (16 
U.S.C. 777 et seq.), and to transfer receipts to the 
States, matched by State fishing license revenues, to 
manage sport fish and conserve aquatic habitats, 
further enhancing the maturation of the State fish 
and wildlife agencies into science-based management 
of all fish species; 
(8) this user-pay, public-benefits means of fund-
ing fish and wildlife conservation is unique in the 
world, having been brought to the Federal Govern-
ment by sportsmen and sportswomen who were will-
ing to pay these fees to ensure dedicated funds to 
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fish and wildlife conservation delivered by the 
States; 
(9) these user-pay funds (licenses and excise 
taxes)— 
(A) have benefited not just hunters and 
anglers but all Americans in providing abun-
dant fish and wildlife (game and nongame spe-
cies both), clean water, outdoor recreation, 
healthy activities, and quality of life; and 
(B) provide, and will continue to provide, 
a majority of the funds that are available to 
State fish and wildlife agencies for science- 
based management of fish and wildlife for their 
citizens; 
(10) State fish and wildlife agencies are respon-
sible for all fish and wildlife, but are grossly under-
funded to fulfill these responsibilities because there 
are few funds available at the State level for fish 
and wildlife conservation except those driven by 
hunting and fishing license revenues, and Federal 
excise tax revenues; 
(11) Congress enacted the Wildlife Conserva-
tion and Restoration Account under section 3(a)(2) 
of the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act 
(16 U.S.C. 669b(a)(2)) to extend support for the 
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full array of fish and wildlife conservation needs, in-
cluding species that are not hunted or fished, but 
only authorized appropriations for the Account for 
one year; 
(12) while appropriated funds have been made 
available through the State Wildlife Grants program 
of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the 
lack of assured and sufficient dedicated funds for 
the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account 
has left unrealized the goals of the Account, thereby 
allowing fish and wildlife to continue to decline 
across the United States and resulting in hundreds 
of species being listed under the Endangered Species 
Act of 1973; 
(13) partly as a requirement of the unfunded 
Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Account, each 
State and territory is required to seek public input 
and produce a comprehensive fish and wildlife con-
servation strategy, called a State Wildlife Action 
Plan, to guide the conservation of the full array of 
fish, wildlife and their habitats in each State and 
territory; 
(14) providing assured and sufficient dedicated 
funding to the Wildlife Conservation and Restoration 
Account will advance the national interest in assur-
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ing sustainable populations of all fish and wildlife 
species for the use and enjoyment of our citizens, 
through implementing the comprehensive fish and 
wildlife conservation strategies of the States; 
(15) as funds become available through enact-
ment of this Act, States should secure the needed 
non-Federal match from sources other than revenue 
generated by sportsmen and sportswomen through 
the sale of State hunting and fishing licenses, which 
is the historic, and sometimes only, source of match-
ing funds for the excise tax revenue generated 
through the Federal wildlife and sport fish restora-
tion accounts; and 
(16) Federal wildlife and sport fish restoration 
accounts support activities that include, but are not 
limited to, fish and wildlife restoration projects for 
game species that also benefit an array of other 
game and nongame species, hunter education, and 
range development efforts. 
(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are— 
(1) to provide dedicated and assured funding to 
advance the national interest in keeping fish and 
wildlife from becoming threatened or endangered 
with extinction, by supporting programs in each 
State and territory to address the conservation needs 
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of the full diverse array of declining fish and wildlife 
species, including both game and nongame species; 
(2) to provide from the Wildlife Conservation 
and Restoration Account the Federal share of the 
support needed to implement the comprehensive fish 
and wildlife conservation strategies developed by 
each State and territory in order to address the 
needs of those species identified by each State and 
territory as species of greatest conservation need; 
and 
(3) to carry out collaborative and proactive con-
servation actions with the goal of precluding the 
need for listing of species under the Endangered 
Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531), as well as en-
hancing the ability of the States to recover species 
listed under that Act and remove them from the pro-
tection of the Act. 
SEC. 3. WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND RESTORATION SUB-
ACCOUNT. 
Section 3(a) of the Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Res-
toration Act (16 U.S.C. 669b(a)) is amended by striking 
paragraph (2) and inserting the following: 
‘‘(2) WILDLIFE CONSERVATION AND RESTORA-
TION SUBACCOUNT.— 
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‘‘(A) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is estab-
lished in the Federal Aid to Wildlife Restora-
tion Fund a subaccount to be known as the 
‘Wildlife Conservation and Restoration Sub-
account’ (referred to in this paragraph as the 
‘Subaccount’). 
‘‘(B) USE.—Amounts in the Subaccount 
shall be available without further appropriation, 
for each fiscal year, for apportionment in ac-
cordance with this Act to carry out State Wild-
life Conservation and Restoration programs in 
order to manage fish and wildlife species of 
greatest conservation need as determined by a 
State fish and wildlife agency. 
‘‘(C) DEPOSITS.—Starting in fiscal year 
2016, the Secretary of the Treasury shall trans-
fer to the fund for deposit in the Subaccount 
the following: 
‘‘(i) OUTER
CONTINENTAL
SHELF 
REVENUES.—From amounts deposited in 
the Treasury under section 9 of the Outer 
Continental Shelf Lands Act (43 U.S.C. 
1338), $650,000,000. 
‘‘(ii) 
MINING
REVENUES.—From 
amounts deposited in the Treasury under 
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section 35 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 
U.S.C. 191), after the withdrawal of funds 
to the States under subsection (a) of that 
section, $650,000,000.’’. 
Æ 
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