This legislation will prohibit the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture from banning the use of lead ammunition or tackle on federal lands and waters unless such regulation is consistent with state law and supported by science.
Prohibit the Secretary of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture from banning the use of lead ammunition or tackle on federal lands and waters unless the regulation is consistent with state law and supported by science.
Occurrences
This legislation will prohibit bans on lead ammunition and tackle use on federal lands or waters, except where supported by site-specific, population-level data, and where consistent with the laws and regulations of the state where the unit is located.
Evidence
The Interior Secretary issued SO 3447, which says restrictions on lead ammunition or tackle may not be included in station-specific regulations except in rare circumstances supported by site-specific scientific evidence or where needed to align with State or Tribal law, and requires Director approval for any such restriction.
Congress.gov still lists H.R. 556 as introduced, with the latest action being placement on the Union Calendar on 2025-11-25. The bill summary states it would bar FWS, BLM, and the Forest Service from prohibiting or regulating lead ammunition or tackle on federal land or water, subject to narrow exceptions.
Congress.gov still lists H.R. 556 as a bill with status Introduced, and the latest recorded action remains the House committee order to report it from 2025-07-15. There is no enacted-law entry on the official tracker.
The Interior Department issued an internal order that tracks the promise's substance by limiting lead-ammunition or tackle bans unless supported by unit-specific science or consistent with state or Tribal law. It is an agency policy, not a statute, and it does not fully bind Agriculture in the same way a law would.
Assessments
The promise was not fully enacted as a law: H.R. 556 remained introduced and unresolved on Congress.gov. However, the Interior Department later issued SO 3447, an internal policy that closely matches much of the promised limit on lead ammunition or tackle bans on Interior lands and waters, though it is not a statute and does not fully bind Agriculture. That supports partial credit rather than full delivery.
The promised statutory prohibition was not fully delivered because H.R. 556 had not become law; it remained pending after being placed on the Union Calendar. However, Interior Secretary Order 3447 adopted a federal executive policy that closely mirrors the promised limits for Interior lands and waters by restricting lead-ammunition or tackle bans unless supported by site-specific science or aligned with state or Tribal law. That is meaningful same-term progress but falls short of the full promise because it is an internal executive order, does not bind Agriculture/Forest Service in the same statutory way, and can be changed by later executive action.