WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., today signed a letter encouraging U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Martha Williams not to cave in to activists’ calls to restrict the use of lead ammo and tackle on public lands.

The letter, led by U.S. Senator Steve Daines, R-Mont., was prompted by growing pressure being put on Williams to ban the use of lead ammunition and tackle, much like the restrictions imposed in the last days of the Obama administration. The Obama administration’s ban was reversed by the Trump administration.

“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-W.Va., John Boozman, R-Ark., Mike Braun, R-Ind., Richard Burr, R-N.C., Bill Cassidy, M.D., R-La., Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., John Hoeven, R-N.D., John Kennedy, R-La., James Lankford, R-Okla., Cynthia Lummis R-Wyo., Roger Marshall, M.D., R-Kan., Jim Risch, R-Idaho, Mike Rounds, R-S.D., Rick Scott, R-Fla., Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, John Thune, R-S.D., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., Josh Hawley, R-Mo., Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., and Pat Toomey, R-Pa., also signed the letter.

Read the letter here.