Bondi defends Justice Department proposal to end standalone ATF

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Monday defended a Trump administration proposal to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a major shakeup experts say would likely require congressional action to implement.

The Justice Department in a fiscal 2026 budget request has outlined a plan to merge ATF functions into the Drug Enforcement Administration, which would remain a single component. Bondi got questions about the plan during a House Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Groups on both sides of the gun debate have found rare agreement in opposing the plan, though for different reasons. Gun control advocates say it will weaken enforcement, while one prominent gun owner rights organization called the merger idea an “abomination” that would “create a taxpayer-funded super agency to target gun owners.”

Bondi told lawmakers that “guns and drugs go together” and the merger would be a “great marriage between those two agencies.”

“They’re working hand-in-hand on task forces already. Now, they will be working under one umbrella, and it’s going to be great for our country,” Bondi said.

“Bureaucracy has been around for a very long time, and just because things have been done one way for decades and decades doesn’t mean that is the most efficient way to do them in the future,” she said.

The House and Senate have not released their fiscal 2026 spending bills that includes DOJ funding, although the House is expected to do so in early July.

The proposed language was part of a broader budget proposal from the Trump administration that would cut salaries and expenses funding for key law enforcement agencies and make overhaul changes to the department.

At the hearing, Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, sparred with Bondi over the Trump administration’s plans for the ATF.

DeLauro asked Bondi how the department could ask for an approximate 26% funding cut to the ATF without weakening the bureau’s ability to help state and local authorities fight illegal gun trafficking.

She also pointed out the DOJ budget request says ATF will eliminate 541 industry operation investigators that would reduce inspections by 40%, and a reduction of 284 fewer support personnel and 186 agents based on historical attrition patterns.

DeLauro noted that both ATF and the DEA would face cuts under the Trump administration’s budget proposal, potentially hindering federal efforts to stop illegal gun trafficking and federal efforts to stop the flow of illegal drugs.

“So you’re going to merge the two agencies together, and then you’re going to shortchange their resources so neither one of them will be able to do the job that they have been designed to do,” DeLauro said.

Bondi said the department is reorganizing the ATF. “We will not be having ATF agents go to the doors of gun owners in the middle of the night, asking them about their guns — period. They will be out on the streets with (the) DEA,” Bondi said.

A department budget document said the merger “will lead to efficiencies in resources, case deconfliction, regulatory efforts, and reductions of duplicative functions and infrastructure.”

Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., who founded a gun store, brought up the ATF merger and said the Biden administration had a zero-tolerance approach against federal firearms licensees, and suggested that industry operations investigators be moved to the Commerce Department.

Rep. Dale Strong, R-Ala., asked about what the merger would mean for the ATF’s National Center for Explosives Training and Research located on Redstone Arsenal, located in his district.

Bondi said she would like to visit the facility and added that “there are no cuts planned for that.”

Changes and debate

Some legal experts say statutory languages could have to be changed by Congress before the Justice Department begins the merger.

Congress for years has appropriated funding to the bureau as its own line item. And a fiscal 2024 government funding bill stipulates that no funds may be used to “transfer the functions, missions, or activities” of the ATF to “other agencies or Departments.”

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 also stipulates that the ATF is established within the Justice Department and outlines the role of bureau director.

Meanwhile, gun rights groups have slammed the concept of merging the ATF into the DEA.

Critics of the plan say if ATF’s regulatory responsibilities are placed within a bigger agency with a larger budget, those resources could be turned against gun owners in the future during an administration looking to impose stricter gun policies.

Plus, federal gun regulation statutes would not simply disappear if the AFT is disbanded, they said.

Among the groups opposing the merger are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America and the NSSF, a trade association for the firearms industry.

“We would rather deal with an ATF that we understand and have a working relationship with on the regulatory side to achieve compliance than to deal with a behemoth that has no culture of regulating the industry or working with the industry,” said Lawrence Keane, senior vice president for government and public affairs and general counsel at the NSSF.

“We don’t think it’s in the best interest of gun owners,” he said.

The Firearms Policy Coalition said in a statement it “strongly opposes any plan to merge the ATF with any other federal law enforcement agency.”

Luis Valdes, national spokesman for the Gun Owners of America, said merging the AFT with another agency would increase the available budget while providing reduced oversight and accountability.

In its current form, he said, the ATF is under a microscope.

“Everything they do is watched, and it’s far easier to control their budget and make sure that they don’t grow in scope, budget and manpower to violate (Amercans’) Second Amendment rights,” Valdes said.

Groups on the opposite side of the gun debate have also come out in opposition or criticized the proposed merger.

Lindsay Nichols, policy director at the gun violence prevention organization GIFFORDS, said in a statement that the merger “would threaten the enforcement of federal firearms laws.”

“It would weaken efforts to stop gun traffickers, straw purchasers, and gun dealers who are breaking the law,” Nichols said.

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