PA Senate Game and Fisheries — 2026-05-06

I call this meeting of the Senate Game and Fisheries Committee to order in order to establish a quorum. Ben, would you please call the roll?

Here.

Here.

Dush?

Hutchinson?

Laughlin?

Malone?

Picozzi?

Schwenk?

L. Williams?

Kay Ward?

Rothman.

With a quorum being established, I call up Senate Bill 469, introduced by Senator Langerholt. This bill adds qualifications for disabled veterans to receive free and reduced hunting licenses. Is there a motion to consider the bill?

Is there a second?

Senator Langerholt has joined us to speak on the bill, and I will now turn it over to him. Are there any questions or comments? I'm mistaken. I said disabled veterans. It's law enforcement. So, Senator Langerholt, the floor is yours.

Any questions? Yes.

I believe so. I will check on that. I know that even since we've introduced this just today, actually, here, there was a question regarding potential retired officers as well. So we will look at that. If that is not covered, then I would be happy to amend that, or if you amend that, that would be great.

Yes.

Thank you.

Chair Malone. Hey, thank you much. I was wondering you know we are aware that the hunting and fishing licenses are an important source of revenue for the conservation enforcement and the habitat programs right How much would this bill actually impact that revenue stream

Sounds great. No worries. I think it's an awesome bill, but I just wanted to have that check.

Thanks, Chairman. Senator Laughlin. Yeah, looking for a little clarification here, Senator Langerholz, when Chairman Rothman first introduced the bill today, he mentioned disabled. This doesn't have anything to do with disabled officers, does it? Correct. Okay. You know, I'm going to be a dissenting voice here today, not to be a problem. I know the bill will move out of committee and we can have further discussions on it. But I have to say that, you know, as a supporter of law enforcement, too, by the way, that it seems like we run a lot of what I would call special interest bills out of this legislature. And, you know, I come from a construction background, and I could run a bill that says, you know, we should give reduced licenses to roofers. roofers risk their lives on a daily basis and they keep our homes dry and you know we continue to take bites out of the budget for the Pennsylvania Game Commission and you know I know Senator Malone mentioned the fiscal impact as well today you know I would rather see this money spent on on habitat improvement and things like that that enhance our hunting experience for the average citizen and it's no disrespect to our law enforcement. But most of them have good paying jobs and they can certainly afford a hunting license. We have one of the cheapest hunting licenses in the entire United States. And I think that we need to put a little more consideration into this bill. And I say that respectfully. So I will be a no out of committee and I know that we can work on it a little bit more. Thank you.

I wanted to address the earlier question about who it applies to. Municipal police, campus and university police, railroad, street rail police, airport police, county park police, Pennsylvania state police, correction officers, Pennsylvania fish and boat commission officers, Pennsylvania game commission officers, county sheriffs or deputies, and any employee of a law enforcement agency who is empowered to enforce the provisions of 18 PACS relating to crimes and offenses and other laws in this Commonwealth. So that may apply to the district attorney's offices.

senator boscola aye senator coleman proxy aye Proxy aye Senator Dush Proxy aye Proxy aye Senator Hutchinson?

Aye. Senator Laughlin?

Nay. Senator Malone?

Aye. Senator Picozzi?

Aye. Senator Schwenk?

Aye. Senator Williams?

Proxy, aye. Senator Kay Ward?

Proxy, aye. Senator Rothman?

The vote being 10 to 1.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It's a bill I'm introducing. The bill provides resident hunting license prices for non-resident hunters who were born in Pennsylvania or have a parent or former guardian residing in Pennsylvania.

Senator Laughlin. Thank you, Chairman Rothman. I have some similar concerns about this bill as far as the fiscal impact on the game commission. We currently have 50,000 out-of-state licenses, and I realize that not all of them are former residents, so we would be guessing at the fiscal impact on this. I am going to vote to move it out of committee. I don't believe there was going to be any chance of that not moving anyway, but I would like to work with Chairman Rothman to maybe tailor this bill a little bit more and or perhaps give the Game Commission a regulatory authority to offer a discounted out-of-state license. So I'm sort of supportive, and I'll help you get it out of committee, but I think it needs a little more work. Thank you.

Sorry, that caught me. I do have a question just on, like, I definitely think this is a good idea to try and promote. We've seen decreases in licensing, so I think anything that we can do to try and promote is a good idea. But on the read-through of a native Pennsylvanian, one of the things that I was looking at is like if we had a Maryland resident that was born in a Pennsylvania hospital, does that count? And I know this is extremely facetious and petty. However, that's what we always run into once the law is in place. And so I'm just curious if we kind of look through some of that, because I do know that we had the line items about the birth certificate or the certificate of the grandparent and that kind of thing. So it's just something I think we ought to look for between now and when it gets on the floor.

Right.

Absolutely.

Yeah, and, you know, thank you for jogging my memory there, Senator Malone. I think you know that's what I that what I mean when I said I think we need to do a little bit more work on this bill as well When I think when most of these out folks would purchase a license they would do it through the online version And then it becomes, you know, how do you get these documents to the PGC? Who's in charge of the security that they don't get stolen or hacked? I mean, there's some concerns here. and even though I'm kind of supportive of this, trying to keep people hunting in Pennsylvania, I think there are some issues that need to be addressed, and I think we might be able to address it better with just allowing the PGC to offer maybe a seven-day big game license or something like that. So just a little more work, that's all. Thank you.

Yes, just to speak on the bill in general, we're calling this Coming Home to Hunt. And while short-term it may just be about helping to inspire more people to come to Pennsylvania to hunt, what we really are trying to do is to get those young people who have left Pennsylvania to come home to hunt and then stay here. So this isn't just a bill that is trying to help to create more hunters and deal with the declining number of sportsmen we have in Pennsylvania. This is also to address the demographic crisis, where in real numbers we are losing Pennsylvanians between the ages of 20 and 64. And those are the Pennsylvanians that we would like to attract to come back to Pennsylvania. we have the best hunting and fishing in the entire nation and states that are taking our natives who are leaving there for economic opportunities. This is one more way to get them to come back to Pennsylvania. The bill also has a savings of it's about maybe $79 a hunter. But if you think about what a hunter does when they come into this state, and maybe they're staying at a hotel or at a cabin, and they're eating out in a restaurant, or they're buying ammunition or they're buying equipment, I mean, those are all things that this is an economic principle. This morning, the place I work out, they handed me three free guest passes to give to a friend so they can come for one glass, thinking that hopefully they'll enjoy it and sign up for a year-long membership, right? I mean, that's how businesses attract people. That's why they have sales. That's why the first class is free. So this is a chance to reach out to our Pennsylvanians that have left. And once they get in the woods or once they get in the stream, we anticipate that they will realize what huge benefits Pennsylvania has to hunters and what the outdoors has benefits to their psyche and that they'll come home and stay here. With that, Ben, will you please call the roll?

Proxy, yes.

Proxy, yes.

Proxy, yes.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Proxy, aye.

Proxy, aye.

Aye.

Senate Bill 1313 is reported out of committee. This concludes today's agenda, and the Senate Game Fisheries Committee stands in recess until the call of the chair.