House and Senate Concur About Buffalo Bill
The Wyoming House has concurred with what some consider a rather quirky amendment to a bill that revises quotas for bison hunting in the state in order to win passage of the bill in the interest of wildlife management. Teton County Representative Keith Gingery says the basic bill is intended to facilitate the reduction of the Jackson bison herd from 900 animals to the desired herd size of 500. The bill would change restrictions from a hunter taking one bison in a lifetime, to being limited to one bull bison in a lifetime, but a cow once every five years. However, he says the Senate added on a provision that said that $250-thousand would be appropriated to the Attorney General to defend cases in which the Obama Administration attempts to take away hunters’ rights to own a rifle to hunt a bison. Gingery says, “It’s somewhat of a strange amendment because there are no proposals from the federal government to take away hunting rifles; but for whatever reason, the Senate put it on there.” He says the money will actually never get spent and revert back to general fund after a year. The revised restrictions take effect July first.
