Congress restores shooting and archery course funding

Congress, almost unanimously, passed a bill to restore federal funding for high-school shooting and archery courses. This reverses a Biden administration decision over the summer to defund such courses. It is the sharpest rebuke yet that Congress has dealt to this President. Given the overwhelming support for the measure, Biden has no practical choice but to sign it.

Congress shows rare unanimity – almost

On Tuesday the House of Representatives voted 424-1 to pass the Protecting Hunting Heritage and Education Act (H.R. 5110). According to GovTrack, the House passed this measure under suspension of the rules. Bills brought to a vote under such suspension require a two-thirds supermajority. In fact, only one House member (Rep. Veronica Escobar, D-Texas) voted against it, according to The Western Journal. Beyond that, five Republicans and three Democrats did not vote. (The House has two vacancies, after Reps. David Cicilline, D-R.I., and Chris Stewart, R-Utah, resigned.)

The Senate passed the bill unanimously, after Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), and Kyrstin Sinema (I-Ariz.) all introduced it in that chamber, according to Fox News.

In July, Biden’s education secretary ruled that the shooting and archery courses violated a provision in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that, it said, forbade federal funding for weapons and weapons training. In fact Congress had intended to fund armed “school resources officers” elsewhere in the public laws. The decision by the Education Secretary outraged many office holders from both parties. Jack Gist of The Western Journal suggested the Democrats (except for Rep. Escobar) did not care to tempt electoral fate. This suggests that support for “keeping and bearing arms” remains stronger than gun-control advocates would like to believe.

Rep. Escobar made no statement after the House vote on H.R. 5110.

Wider context

This latest action by Congress takes place in the context of an attempt by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-New Mexico) to suspend open and concealed carry in the largest city in her State. Gun owners’ groups held peaceful demonstrations in Albuquerque in which they carried their guns openly. Albuquerque police made no arrests. The Sheriff and District Attorney of Bernalillo County refused to enforce the suspension or prosecute violations of it. A Biden-appointed federal judge issued a Temporary Restraining Order against the suspension. Thus far Grisham has not revoked her suspension, but significantly narrowed its public scope. Nevertheless, impeachment proceedings have begun in the New Mexico legislature over that ban.