AB 843

The 2013-15 biennial budget bill (Act 20) requires the Department of Natural

Resources (DNR) to provide one grant during each fiscal biennium to a nonprofit

organization to provide education to persons who engage in hunting, fishing, and

trapping and to establish and operate programs to recruit persons to engage in those

activities. Act 20 requires DNR to provide a grant in the amount of $500,000 in the

2013-15 fiscal biennium and a grant of $450,000 in each fiscal biennium thereafter.

Beginning with grants awarded during fiscal biennium 2015-17, the grant recipient

must contribute $150,000 in funds to be used with the grant awarded by DNR.

In order to be eligible for a grant under Act 20, a nonprofit organization is

required to meet certain requirements. Among those requirements are that it has

a relationship with a nationally recognized organization that provides firearm safety

education, that it teaches courses on firearm safety and training, that it has a

relationship with a nationally recognized shooting expert, and that it is not an

affiliate of a national federation or organization. Act 20 provides that the recipient

of the grant must use it to provide programs and education designed to preserve and

protect this state's hunting, fishing, trapping, and shooting traditions.

Act 20 also creates a committee to review grant applications submitted to DNR

and to submit recommendations to the secretary of DNR as to which applicant should

receive a grant in fiscal year 2013-15.

This bill eliminates the grant program created in Act 20, and the committee

established to review grant applications, and creates a different grant program.

Under this bill, DNR is required to promulgate rules to establish a program to award

grants to nonprofit organizations to educate and train persons who engage in

hunting, fishing, or trapping, to conduct programs to recruit persons to engage in

those activities, or to conduct programs to encourage continued engagement in those

activities. The bill provides that a nonprofit organization is eligible to receive a grant

if it demonstrates to DNR's satisfaction that it is able to perform the activity for

which the grant application is made. Beginning with grants awarded in the 2015-17

biennium, a nonprofit organization that receives a grant must contribute funds

equal to at least 25 percent of the cost of the activity for which the grant is awarded.

The bill also specifies that DNR must consult with the sporting heritage council

in awarding grants under the grant program. Under the bill, DNR may not award

grants totalling more than $450,000 in any biennium and no nonprofit organization

may receive more than $100,000 in any biennium.