Legislation

We can have the best wildlife habitat imaginable and a record number of people who buy fishing and hunting licenses, but it won’t matter if misguided laws and regulations are made at the federal and state levels that negatively impact our outdoor traditions or if no one is proactively promoting a sportsmen’s agenda in the political arena.

Keeping sportsmen’s issues front and center is what we do day in and day out as our sole focus is on providing a voice for sportsmen in the political arena.

The single-minded focus and unmatched expertise and experience of the Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation gives hunters and anglers, as well as the industries that serve them, the ultimate protection against legislative attacks and delivers results for the advancement of sportsmen’s interest.

CSF and the constituencies that we serve are focused on maintaining and increasing the American public’s engagement and participation in outdoor activities with a predominant, but not exclusive, focus on hunting, fishing, and the shooting sports.

The overarching result of such participation in these activities is the furtherance of the American System of Conservation Funding (System).  This System has provided a permanent and dependable funding source that allows state fish and wildlife agencies to hire professional managers who make scientifically sound fish and wildlife management decisions. These investments have produced abundant fish and wildlife populations across America.  Just as important, states have used these funds to ensure that the public has ready and dependable access to these resources by purchasing public lands, creating lakes, building shooting ranges, building boat ramps, and developing other access opportunities for the enjoyment of the public.

The basic premise used by our conservation leaders some 75 years ago for the development of the System was that having healthy and abundant fish and wildlife populations and readily available public access to those resources by the  public would attract new hunters and anglers, which would result in higher sales of licenses and hunting and fishing equipment, making more conservation funding available to the states for improved fish and wildlife management.  Thus, a perpetual funding circle was developed that would grow as the hunting and angling population increased.

In today’s increasingly urbanized American society, the growing threat to the success of the System is a declining number of participants in traditional outdoor activities.

There are a number of programs and initiatives to promote increased participation in these sports from industry, state and federal agencies, and non-governmental organizations (NGO’s).   Predominant issues of focus for these interests include public access to quality fish and wildlife habitat to hunt and fish, as well as the protection of shooting facilities.  Both are critical to the future success/propagation of the System.