Latest news with #HouseBill259
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Texas school shooting survivors asking lawmakers to reject some gun bills
The Brief School shooting survivors are asking Texas lawmakers to reject certain gun bills Lawmakers discussed HB 259, which legalizes short-barrel firearms, and HB 4201, that allows license-to-carry holders to carry on government property Both bills were left pending in the House Committee AUSTIN, Texas - School shooting survivors are asking Texas lawmakers to reject certain gun bills. They said they could have devastating consequences. Dig deeper It has been almost three years since 19 children and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. "And since then, not a single, not a single meaningful law has been passed in this legislature to make our communities safer and our schools safer. Instead of action, we've seen the complete opposite: More guns, fewer rules, and leaders who refuse to even listen to people begging for change," District 145 Rep. Christina Morales said. Gun safety advocates begged again on Monday for House Committee members to oppose several bills presented. Survivors of the Santa Fe School shooting that killed eight students and two teachers said these bills increase the risk for students. HB 259 legalizes short-barrel firearms. "I was shot by a sawed-off shotgun in the Santa Fe high school mass school shooting on May 18, 2018," Santa Fe school shooting survivor Flo Rice said. HB 4201 allows license-to-carry holders to carry on government property. "To allow license holders to carry a concealed firearm in sensitive areas, such as schools, introduces unnecessary risk to every single child in a public school in the state of Texas," a gun safety advocate said. The other side Gun safety advocates say these bills could have devastating consequences. However, gun rights advocates say it is about protecting the Second Amendment. "I feel for the families or the people that have been involved with violence, but the answer is not by limiting the ability of people to defend themselves or others," gun rights advocate, John Swicegood, said. "When a license-to-carry holder is present and carrying, everyone around them is safer, and we need to protect their ability to do so," a gun rights advocate said. What's next House Bill 259 and House Bill 4201 were left pending in the House Committee. The Source Information from interviews conducted by FOX 7 Austin's Meredith Aldis
Yahoo
26-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
House lawmakers greenlight two more wolf management bills
A gray wolf. (Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife) The Montana House advanced two more bills this week aimed at reducing the state's wolf population, which is three times higher than the benchmark of sustainability identified in the Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks management plan. Rep. Paul Fielder, R-Thompson Falls, carried both bills, which he described as adding 'more tools in the toolbox' of management, by increasing opportunities to hunt gray wolves. House Bill 258 would extend the wolf hunting season to align with the existing end of the spring black bear hunting season. Currently, the general wolf season runs from mid-September to mid-March, while the spring black bear season ends May 31 or mid-June, per FWP's discretion. 'There's a whole variety of tools that can be used, and this is another tool we're trying to bring, to extend the wolf hunting season,' Fielder told members of the House during the Feb. 24 floor session. The bill passed along partisan lines, with an amendment brought by a freshman Democratic legislator from outside Yellowstone National Park. Rep. Scott Rosenzweig, D-Bozeman, asked the body to support a 'bipartisan in spirit' amendment to create a 15-mile buffer zone around Yellowstone and Glacier national parks. The buffer regions would have a two-wolf quota and a bag limit of one wolf, and count illegally harvested wolves toward the quota. 'The livelihood of the national park's gateway communities is tied to nature tourism. This is especially relevant in the face of the current turmoil from national politics,' Rosenzweig said. He listed off the hundreds of millions in tourism dollars funneled into communities near both parks, adding that 'A lot of that comes from people who want to see wildlife, and one of the most sought after animals is wolves.' Fielder called it a friendly amendment, saying he was surprised when the representative from across the aisle approached him asking for support. He said the buffer zones would serve to prevent large depredation of the Park's wolf packs without fully extending the protections. 'You've gotta condition wildlife so they know the boundaries of where they can go,' Fielder said. 'It's a constant reminder every year to some of those wolves that you're getting out of the park now, you're not in a protected area any more.' The amendment had 70 representatives support it, though one Democrat, Rep. Jamie Isaly, D-Livingston, called it a 'good amendment to another bad wolf bill.' Fielder's other proposed piece of legislation, House Bill 259, would allow the use of infrared scopes and thermal imagery scopes while hunting on private lands at night, and amended language in Montana code to require the commission to take stronger management action. 'You know the wolf population was controlled originally by poison. We don't want to do that. That's a bad pathway to go, it affects many other critters. You can use sportsmen —licensed hunters, licensed trappers — that are regulated by laws, or you can use the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.' As a government agency, Fielder said the latter option wasn't always the best choice, and so Montana continued opting to empower local hunters to manage wolves. Rep. Jill Cohenour, D-Helena, pushed back at the notion that the Legislature should insert itself in a species management decision. 'This is a continuation of going after the commission's ability to be able to manage these wolves according to the local input form the folks that are on the ground and the information that they get from biologists,' she said. 'I am disappointed in the fact that people are bringing all of those things to this legislature rather than putting this amount of energy towards the Commission to get them to listen to the folks on the ground.' The bill passed second reading on Monday 54-45. Both of Fielder's bills will head to the Senate. Montana is home to roughly 1,100 resident wolves, despite a law passed by the 2021 legislature requiring FWP to reduce the number of wolves to a 'sustainable level,' which FWP has estimated around 450. Currently, another bill, House Bill 176, is moving through the Senate and would let the state Fish and Wildlife Commission allow unlimited hunting when the wolf population is more than 550 animals. While the bill originally required unlimited hunting, an amendment in the House softened the language to merely 'allow' for such a decision. House Bill 176 was heard in the Senate Fish and Game Committee last week, but the committee had not taken action as of Wednesday morning.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bill looks to increase Oil and Gas Act penalties to $10K to discourage bad players
Feb. 18—SANTA FE — If oil and gas operators are excessively emitting greenhouse gases or contaminating groundwater, state officials want to threaten them back into compliance with an up to $10,000 daily penalty. That's a 300% increase from the current $2,500 maximum daily penalty, included in House Bill 259, which would also raise fees imposed on operators applying to drill wells. The bill passed its first of three House committees Tuesday on a 7-4 vote along party lines. The legislation aims to discourage operators from violating the state's Oil and Gas Act, which has public and environmental health and safety regulations in place. The measure also seeks to increase the cap on aggregate civil penalty assessments from $200,000 to $2.65 million. The ask was initially a $3.65 million cap, but the House Energy, Environment and Natural Resources Committee decreased that number through an amendment. Since 2019, the Oil Conservation Division has assessed $29 million in penalties, said Ben Shelton, the acting deputy secretary of the state's Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. But of that, he said, the state has only collected $8 million, which went to the general fund. That's because a goal of the Oil Conservation Division, under the purview of EMNRD, is to bring operators into compliance, Shelton said. The OCD negotiates with operators willing to correct their violations, he said. "We basically trade dollars for compliance," Shelton said. "It is important to have this cap raised because currently too many violations, too many polluting actions, are seen as a business proposition." In other words, operators are willing to cough up $200,000 because oil sales will make more than that anyway. Legislators asked a few times how many operators ignore the penalty assessments and continue operating anyway. Shelton said not many, but when it does happen, it's very costly and harmful to New Mexico. About 5% of operators are repeat offenders, he added. Lobbyists for operators, including the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association and the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico, spoke against the bill. "$200,000 is already enough to limit or significantly hurt, if not threaten, solvency of many independent operators," said Jim Winchester, executive director of the Independent Petroleum Association of New Mexico. "Let's not continue to send a message to operators that this administration does not want oil and gas here." Rep. Rod Montoya, R-Farmington, called the numbers arbitrary and said the bill didn't include considerations from the oil and gas industry. He added that while the industry is thriving now, it won't always be flush with cash. "I'm not saying ... that increasing fees is not necessarily somehow warranted. I just know how we got to where our fees are now, and there was input on the industry," he said. Under the measure, drilling application fees would increase from $500 to $1,500 — a 200% increase. Bill sponsor Rep. Matthew McQueen, D-Galisteo, encouraged legislators and advocates not to play "the percentage game" and instead "look at the fee, the penalty, whatever it is, in relation to the economic activity, and is it appropriate in today's market? Not, 'Is it a certain percentage compared to an artificially low amount we had before?'" Travis Kellerman, senior climate policy adviser for the governor, spoke in support of the bill, saying it's about modernization. It would streamline administrative and regulatory responsibilities at OCD and reduce general fund dependency, he said. "It makes sense," he said. "This update is overdue." Rep. Meredith Dixon, D-Albuquerque, said she wants more specifics on this bill, like the exact number of operators who refuse to correct their violations, before it goes to the House Appropriations and Finance Committee, which Dixon is the vice chair of. "I don't disagree with the premise or what we're trying to do, but I find that it's very challenging to change statute without actual facts and figures," she said.
