In a turn of events, after the state House of Representatives removed provisions to expand hunting access across Massachusetts proposed by Gov. Maura Healey in a budget bill earlier this month, legislators passed those same allowances in another bill Wednesday night.
Healey originally filed a supplemental bill that included a reversal of the law that prohibits hunting on Sundays, an expansion of access to crossbows, and a reduction of the setback limit, or distance from a dwelling, for bowhunting — from 500 to 250 feet. The supplemental budget passed by the state House on June 17, which now goes to the state Senate for consideration in the coming weeks, didn’t include the provisions on hunting.
The House, however, passed an environmental bond bill Wednesday night that included the provisions.
“The bill updates Massachusetts’ hunting laws by permitting Sunday hunting, expanding legal crossbow use, modernizing archery regulations, and reducing certain hunting-setback requirements near occupied dwellings,” a press release from the House stated.
State Rep. Thomas Moakley said that the strategy was to align each bill, and the hunting provisions were “thematically in line” with the environmental bond bill rather than the supplemental bill.
The Senate already passed its version of the environmental bond bill, so the version that includes the hunting provisions goes to conference between the House and Senate. The final results, Moakley said, will be voted on again by the state legislature.ure.