Federal Aid In Wildlife
Restoration
Program Summary
The U.S. Congress passed the Federal Aid In Wildlife Restoration Act, in 1937 at the request and through the lobbying efforts of sportsmen and women. This important program became known as the Pittman-Robertson Program (P-R) after its primary sponsors. It placed an 11% excise tax on sporting firearms and ammunition. In 1970, the income from an existing 10% excise tax on handguns was added to the fund. And in 1972, an 11% tax was placed on archery equipment used for hunting. These taxes are applied and collected by manufacturers. The program is implemented and administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). The USFWS also administers a similar program that taxes fishing equipment and supports management of state fishery programs.
The Act established a separate fund for these dollars along with the provision they were to be sent to state wildlife management agencies. While Puerto Rico gets 0.5% of the funds and the other four possessions get 0.125% each, states are allocated the remaining dollars based 50% on the number of hunting licenses sold and 50% on the land area in the state. No state can get less than 0.5% nor more than 7.5% of the funds. Up to 50% of the income from archery equipment and handgun taxes can be used for hunter education and shooting range construction. These latter dollars are allocated based on total population only and no state can get less than 1% nor more than 3%.
The Act requires that states provide at least 25% of a project costs - actually, states are reimbursed for projects so they must have the cash flow to pay the entire cost up front. A maximum of 8% can be spent on administration by the USFWS but over the years, 3-4% has been used for this purpose. A further constraint is included in the Act which restricts how states' spend their income generated by hunters: "and which shall include a prohibition against the diversion of license fees paid by hunters for any other purpose than the administration of said State fish and game departments." Funds that have been allocated to states and not spent within two years revert back to the USFWS to accomplish purposes of the Migratory Bird Conservation Act.
The original law contained a requirement that states spending P-R funds had to only hire people involved in wildlife management approved by the Federal program administrator. The requirement stated that employees had to have experience and education in wildlife management. This requirement was dropped in the mid-1970's as states adopted their own hiring criteria.
P-R lead to and continues to support research to improve science based management and the hiring of trained biologists to implement the research findings. It is not limited to expenditures on game animals and many states have and continue to do research and management of non-game animals with P-R funds.
"Pittman-Robertson funds, used largely for preservation and restoration of wetlands in those early days, laid the foundation for waterfowl conservation, non-game and endangered species management, and conservation education." (page 230).
Source: Restoring America's Wildlife 1937-1987: The First 50 years of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration (Pittman-Robertson) Act. 1987. U.S. Department of Interior: Fish and Wildlife Service. 394 pp.