to President Biden The budget proposal for fiscal year 2024 includes 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 over its efforts to further regulate firearms, which have included implementing several controversial rules, such as a ban on stabilizing pistol braces, a “zero-tolerance” policy for federal gun dealers and regulations. cracking down on “ghost guns.”
If approved, Biden’s budget would increase funding for the ATF by about $200 million, or 13.6%, compared to the fiscal year 2023 budget. It would also mark a $663 million increase, or 50%, from by former President Obama final budget in fiscal year 2017.
This 2008 file photo shows weapons 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, additional funding will go toward further regulating the firearms industry, including implementing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, creating gun trafficking strike forces and enforcing background checks.
NO, BIDEN’S BUDGET IS NOT ‘WACKO’ REAGAN’S
President Biden speaks about the administration’s economic development agenda at the Belmont Water Treatment Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on February 3, 2023. (ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)
Republican lawmakers have taken steps to fight the ATF’s policies, including introducing legislation that would expand the rights of gun owners nationwide, such as protecting gun rights of full-time travelers.
Some legislators also demanded ATF Director Steven Dettelbach testified before the House Judiciary Committee on the agency’s efforts to implement its new rules.
BIDEN’S BUDGET PROPOSAL IS A ‘FISCAL ATROCITY’, ECONOMIST WARNS: THE ‘WORST BUDGET I’VE SEEN’
“ATF’s lack of transparency comes after the agency issued a final rule banning stabilizing pistol braces, and as the agency continues to shut down legal businesses through a ‘zero-tolerance’ policy for to federal firearms dealers (FFLs),” Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., wrote in a letter to Dettelbach earlier this month.
Former 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 April 11, 2022, in Washington, DC . (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
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Beyond ATF funding, there’s Biden’s $6.9 trillion budget proposal received sharp criticism from Republicans in Congress with some referring to it as “funky voodoo accounting.”