President Biden’s proposed fiscal year 2024 budget earmarks a whopping $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a massive increase of millions of dollars from last year’s budget.
The proposal comes as the ATF faces increased scrutiny for its efforts to further regulate firearms, which include the implementation of several controversial rules, such as the ban on stabilizing pistol stays, a “zero tolerance” policy for federal gun dealers and regulations about ghost weapons.
If approved, Biden’s budget would increase funding for the ATF by approximately $200 million, or 13.6%, compared to the fiscal 2023 budget. It would also mark an increase of $663 million, or 50%, over former President Obama’s final fiscal 2017 budget.
This 2008 file photo shows guns seized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and laid out on a table at the Bureau’s Arizona headquarters in Phoenix. (Reuters)
According to the White House The additional funds would be used to further regulate the firearms industry, including implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, creating a gun trade strike force, and enforcing background checks.
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President Biden speaks on the progress of the administration’s economic agenda at the Belmont Water Treatment Center on February 3, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican lawmakers have taken steps to challenge the ATF’s rules, including introducing legislation that would expand the rights of gun owners across the country, such as protecting the gun rights of full-time travelers.
Some lawmakers have also required ATF Director Steven Dettelbach to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the agency’s efforts to implement its new rules.
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“The ATF’s lack of transparency comes after the agency issued a final rule banning stabilizing handgun stays and as the agency continues to close legitimate deals through the ‘zero tolerance’ policy for state firearms dealers (FFLs),” he said representative Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky. wrote in a letter to Dettelbach earlier this month.
President Biden’s then-candidate to head the Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Steve Dettelbach speaks during an event on gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House April 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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ATF funding aside, Biden’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal drew harsh criticism from congressional Republicans, with some calling it “funky voodoo accounting.”
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