If you've got a problem with giving your Social  Security number when                                         
you buy a Montana fishing  license, take it up with your congressmen.                                          
People are picking the wrong targets when they vent their anger on the                                         
Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks or on some poor sales                                           
clerk at a sporting goods store.                                                                               
                                                                                                               
 Some people have gotten downright hostile when they've been asked to                                          
give their Social Security numbers to clerks at sporting goods stores.                                         
And many have called FWP to launch tirades at the wrong people.                                                
                                                                                                               
 The requirement was made law by the 1999 Montana Legislature to comply                                        
with federal new requirements under the Social Security Act, and your                                          
congressmen are the only people who can change it. Fish, Wildlife and                                          
Parks and the clerks at the 450 outlets that sell licenses are only                                            
complying with the state law. They don't have any choice. But they're                                          
the easiest targets for angry sportsmen and women.                                                             
                                                                                                               
 The law came about when the Montana Department of Public Health and    
Human Services asked the Montana Legislature to enact a law requiring                                          
Social Security numbers on recreational licenses to comply with federal                                        
requirements. If the state failed to do so, it faced the loss of 
millions of dollars in federal funds. The Social Security numbers are 
one method used to help track down "dead-beat dads." 

 Barney Benkelman, FWP's chief of licensing, said, "The solution most                                          
likely isn't even at the state level.  It has to be done at the federal                                        
level."  Montana is one of the last states to comply with the federal                                          
requirement. Benkelman said our neighboring states of Wyoming and Idaho                                        
has required Social Security numbers on fishing and hunting licenses for                                       
at least two years.                                                                                            
                                                                                                               
 If you're really torqued off about it, take a pen with indelible ink                                          
and cross out the number on your copy of the Montana fishing license.                                          
The original, which goes to Helena, must still have the number on it.                                          
                                                                                                               
 It is legal to cross out that portion on your fishing license because a                                       
Social Security number is not material to the needs of FWP and can be                                          
obliterated. It's the only bit of information, however, that is not                                            
material. It is illegal to obliterate any other                                                                
 information on a license.                                                                                     
                                                                                                               
 And while you've got that pen in your hand, send letters of protest to                                        
Montana Senators Max Baucus and Conrad Burns and to Rep. Rick Hill.    

 But give FWP and the sales clerks a break. They don't need the grief.