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PA Legislative Consultant
Vince Phillips
legislative@pagrange.org
717-346-1063







​

​National Legislative Director
​Burton Ellis
​beller@nationalgrange.org
(202) 628-3507 ext. 114

Click the link below for a summary of the House & Senate Bills currently being tracked by the Grange.
Grange BillTracker
HB448
A Grassroots Organization
Our policies are born from the local Granges across Pennsylvania.  Legislative proposals, called resolutions, are brought forth by members and debated at the local Grange meeting.  Those that pass at the local level are brought before the State Grange Convention and debated, with passing resolutions becoming State Grange Policy, available in our Journal of Proceedings and Legislative Policy Book. When appropriate, these policies are passed to the National Grange to be debated and voted on by the delegates at the National Grange Convention. Policy at the State and National Grange is developed by membership and implemented by staff in a truly grassroots fashion.

Nonpartisanship
The Grange is committed to an issue-based grassroots process which allows us to support civic leaders based on policy rather than local politics. Although we do not support individual candidates, we strongly encourage our membership to engage in local politics and elections that can better the communities they serve. We open our Grange Halls for candidate debates, issue forums and other civic meetings and strongly believe that voting and participation in our governing systems is a civic responsibility.
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National Grange
Views from the Hill

August 2019

The PA State Grange is a member of the 
PA State Council of Farm Organizations
which provides us with the Ag One Newsletter.
Ag One Newsletter November 2019
PA Farm Bill Signed by Governor Wolf

Lancaster Farming Editorial
by President Wayne Campbell

​Sunday Hunting Bill a Shot
in the Dark

Saturday, June 29, 2019
Opinion
Sunday Hunting Bill a Shot in the Dark 

Wayne Campbell President, Pennsylvania State Grange
The Senate vote to allow Sunday hunting is a shot in the dark to reverse the alarming decline of hunting licenses in Pennsylvania over the last several years. We see Senate Bill 147 as a quick-fix attempt to repair this concern without properly evaluating the root cause.
Look at the numbers! In 2013-14, 952,989 licenses were sold. In 2014-15, 943,836 licenses were sold.
This dropped to 935,767 in 2015-16, to 914,244 in 2016-17, and to 885,564 in 2 017-18.
In the current fiscal year (2018-19), the number of hunting licenses sold is estimated by the Game Commission at 867,853. For fiscal year 2019-20, the expected number of hunting licenses sold would drop another 7,357, according to the governor’s budget proposal.
That is a clear danger sign to the future of wildlife conservation money that comes from hunting licenses. The Senate looked at a symptom but did not evaluate the reason for the decline.
Will the General Assembly now take false comfort that the hunting license decline problem has been addressed so the Legislature can now move on to other problems?
The problem is that the General Assembly does not know what is causing the decline. I truly doubt
that the lack of Sunday hunting has much to do with it.
Fast forward a few years when the decline continues. Then today’s advocates will say "Let’s have 12 or 15 or 17 Sundays to hunt. That will solve the problem." But will it?
An alternative would be for the Pennsylvania General Assembly to direct the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to examine why fewer and fewer licenses are sold.
Is it a cultural shift away from hunting by the Millennials? Are anti-gun attitudes prompting some to choose other activities? Is the decline and almost elimination of gun safety classes through the schools a variable? Have both Saturday and Sunday already been taken over by other activities, le aving no room left for hunting?
I want hunting to continue as a Pennsylvania tradition because I know the joys of a day spent in "Penn’s Woods" as well as the fact it funds wildlife conservation. Would it not be better to see what is causing the decline, and then address those causes?
One of my questions is, why did all those people stop purchasing a hunting license? This one-shot solution needs to be replaced with better aim at an identified target.

President Wayne Campbell addressing PA House & Senate Ag and Rural Affairs Committee at their meeting being held at Ag Progress Days.

Farm Bill Power Point
Here is a good power point by the National Journal that discusses  major provisions of the Farm Bill,  adds political perspective and addresses the impacts on agriculture of China tariffs and the withdrawal from NAFTA.  As the Farm Bill heads toward full House action as early as next week, I thought this might be helpful.
--Burton Eller, National Grange Legislative Director
farm_bill-toolbox-power_point_5-3__1_.pdf
File Size: 1990 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File