--- title: Senate: Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges description: The Senate voted this week to abolish a rule restricting certain hunting practices on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. canonical: https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-24T11:39:45.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T04:01:09.487Z article:section: Politics og:title: Senate: Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges og:description: The Senate voted this week to abolish a rule restricting certain hunting practices on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. og:url: https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc50293967cd5eda2/6988bfc18e06016e52469aba/grizzly-bear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2500 og:image:height: 1406 og:image:alt: A grizzly bear is pictured in its enclosure at the Alaska Wi og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Senate: Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges twitter:description: The Senate voted this week to abolish a rule restricting certain hunting practices on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc50293967cd5eda2/6988bfc18e06016e52469aba/grizzly-bear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Senate Votes to Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 24, 2017 11:39 AM UTC  A grizzly bear is pictured in its enclosure at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, Alaska on Aug. 22, 2005. A grizzly bear is pictured in its enclosure at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center in Portage, Alaska on Aug. 22, 2005. Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Mar 24, 2017 11:39 AM UTC The Senate voted this week to abolish a rule restricting certain hunting practices on national wildlife refuges in [Alaska](http://time.com/4390506/gun-control-ar-15-semiautomatic-rifles/)— including trapping, baiting and aerial shooting of animals like wolves and grizzly bears. The Tuesday vote was almost entirely along party lines, with Republicans voting to undo the Obama Administration’s restrictions and Democrats voting against the measure, [the Washington _Post_ reports](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/03/21/senate-votes-to-lift-limits-on-hunting-alaska-grizzlies-and-wolves-on-federal-land/?utm%5Fterm=.f2137099a2b1). At its core, the issue was whether the federal government or the states should have the power to establish these rules. Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said wildlife regulations are central to Alaska’s power as a state. “It was all about fish, it was all about salmon. That’s one of the reasons we fought for statehood,” she said. Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich spoke against the measure, arguing that undoing these hunting restrictions would “turn back the clock 100 years on the management of our native wildlife on our national wildlife refuges in Alaska” and that it would “put the federal stamp of approval on methods of take that the public views as objectionable—even unethical.” The House already voted last month to abolish the hunting restrictions, [NPR reports](http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/22/521089304/congress-rolls-back-obama-era-rule-on-hunting-bears-and-wolves-in-alaska), so the bill will now head to President Trump to sign. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/"},"headline":"Senate Votes to Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges","datePublished":"2017-03-24T11:39:45.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T04:01:09.487Z","description":"The vote knocked reversed Obama administration rules","url":"https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/","keywords":["Congress","Alaska","Senate","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc50293967cd5eda2/6988bfc18e06016e52469aba/grizzly-bear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc50293967cd5eda2/6988bfc18e06016e52469aba/grizzly-bear.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"A grizzly bear is pictured in its enclosure at the Alaska Wi","caption":"A grizzly bear is pictured in its enclosure at the Alaska Wi","creditText":"Daniel Acker—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4712107/senate-vote-alaska-grizzly-hunting/","name":"Senate Votes to Allow Hunting Grizzlies in Alaska Wildlife Refuges"}}]}] ```