President Biden’s budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 includes a whopping $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), a massive multimillion-dollar increase over last year’s budget.
The proposal comes as the ATF gains more attention for its efforts to further regulate firearms, including the implementation of several controversial rules, such as banning stabilizing handgun mounts, a “zero-tolerance” policy for federal firearms dealers, and rules that crack down on “ghost weapons”.
If approved, Biden’s budget would increase funding for the ATF by approximately $200 million, or 13.6%, compared to the fiscal year 2023 budget. It would also increase funding for the ATF by $663 million, or 50%, mean relative to former President Obama’s final fiscal year 2017 budget.
This 2008 file photo shows guns seized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) lying on a table at the agency’s Arizona headquarters in Phoenix. (Reuters)
According to the White House the additional funding would go toward further regulation of the firearms industry, including enforcing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, creating arms trafficking strike forces, and enforcing background checks.
NO, BIDEN’S BUDGET IS NOT LIKE ‘WACKO’ REAGAN’S
President Biden speaks at the Belmont Water Treatment Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 3, 2023, discussing the progress of the government’s economic agenda. (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 demanded that ATF director Steven Dettelbach testify before the House Judiciary Committee about the agency’s efforts to implement its new rules.
ECONOMIST WARNS BIDEN’S BUDGET PROPOSAL IS A ‘TAX ARRACITY’: THE ‘WORST BUDGET I’VE SEEN’
“The ATF’s lack of transparency comes after the agency issued a final rule banning gun bail stabilization, and as the agency continues to shut down legal businesses through its ‘zero-tolerance’ policy for federal firearms dealers (… FFLs),’ Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote in a letter to Dettelbach earlier this month.
Then-President Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Steve Dettelbach, speaks at an event on gun violence in the Rose Garden of the White House on April 11, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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Aside from the ATF funding, Biden’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal has drawn sharp criticism from Republicans in Congress, with some calling it “funky voodoo accounting.”
Brandon Gillespie is an associate editor at Fox News. Follow him on Twitter at @brandon_cg.