04/04/2005 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES

                                                                                                                              
        SJR 16-STATES' RIGHT TO REGULATE HUNTING/FISHING                                                                    
                                                                                                                                
CHAIR WAGONER announced SJR 16 to be up for consideration.                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
SENATOR  THERRIAULT,   sponsor,  explained   that  it   puts  the                                                               
legislature on record as being  supportive of legislation, HR 731                                                               
and  S 339,  that are  pending currently  before the  US Congress                                                               
reaffirming  state regulation  of the  Resident and  Non-Resident                                                               
Hunting and Fishing Act of 2005.                                                                                                
                                                                                                                                
4:04:01 PM                                                                                                                    
He said  Congress has  not taken action  to preclude  states from                                                               
exercising their own sovereign power  with regards to hunting and                                                               
fish when it comes specifically to residents versus non-                                                                        
residents.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
4:05:35 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR  SEEKINS  said  that sometime  court  decisions  actually                                                               
confuse things about what powers  were transferred to the federal                                                               
government in the  US Constitution and told a story  about a pre-                                                               
1953  Supreme  Court  decision that  said  the  three-mile  limit                                                               
didn't  exist  as  to  state ownership,  which  had  always  been                                                               
assumed to  be the  case since  the beginning  of the  nation. In                                                               
order to overcome  that adverse decision, the  US Congress passed                                                               
the 1953  Submerged Lands Act to  make clear that the  states get                                                               
that land.                                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                
4:09:24 PM                                                                                                                    
SENATOR  DYSON  moved   to  pass  SJR  16   from  committee  with                                                               
individual recommendations.  There were no objections  and it was                                                               
so ordered.