House Game and Fisheries committee reports bill to give disabled veterans fishing-license benefits; amendment to include hunters fails

The House Game and Fisheries Committee reported Senate Bill 232, printer's number 185, which would amend Title 30 of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes to provide discounted annual fishing licenses for disabled veterans with service-connected disabilities and free annual fishing licenses for veterans with a 100% disability rating.

An amendment offered by Chair Maloney to extend the same reduced-cost and free-license provisions to hunting and fur-taking licenses was defeated in a committee roll call. Griffin, the committee executive director, explained the amendment would remove a wartime/armed-conflict requirement from Title 34 §2706 and would apply the changed standard to service-connected disabilities between 60% and 100%. The amendment also would allow a veteran with a 100% disability rating to receive a lifetime hunting or fur-taking license without needing to present documentation annually.

Why it matters: The bill and the failed amendment address how veterans with service-connected disabilities are verified and treated for hunting and fishing license fees. Proponents said the measure would align benefits across sportsmen, while opponents sought to keep the underlying Senate bill focused on fishing only.

Chair Maloney argued the amendment simply extended the fishing provisions to hunters. "All this simply does is allow all of our sportsmen to be treated equally," Maloney said. Griffin summarized the legal change: the amendment would remove the current requirement that a qualifying disability be related to a war or armed conflict and would apply the service-connected standard to the relevant disability bands, and would eliminate the need for annual proof for veterans rated 100% disabled.

Representative Kazim asked whether veterans rated 100% would still need to provide initial documentation; Griffin answered that documentation would be required initially to establish the 100% rating but would not need to be provided annually under the amendment. Representative Feinstein asked whether the amendment had been discussed with the bill's sponsor in the Senate; Maloney said it had not been discussed with the prime sponsor and that he would be willing to run the language as a standalone bill in the future.

The committee chair called the roll on Amendment A01275. After the vote, the chair announced that the amendment failed. The committee then voted to report Senate Bill 232 as committed. No further business was raised and the meeting adjourned.