agingrebel.com
Last Friday Congressman Jim
Sensenbrenner, a Republican from Wisconsin,
reintroduced the ATF Elimination Act. The bill would dissolve the Bureau
of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and merge its exclusive
duties into existing federal agencies.
Sensenbrenner introduced the act for the
first time on March 4, 2015. The bill has languished in the circle of
bureaucratic hell called the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism,
Homeland Security and Investigations until its reintroduction.
Scandal And Waste
In May 2015, the Center for American
Progress, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., estimated that
folding the ATF into the Federal Bureau of Investigation would save
taxpayers $58.7 million a year. The ATF has also been at the center of
numerous scandals in the last quarter century: The most notable of which
have been the Ruby Ridge siege in Idaho in 1992; the raid on the Branch
Davidian compound near Waco in 1993; and the so-called gunwalking
scandal which became public in 2011. During that quarter century, the
ATF has been the primary federal police force that infiltrates
motorcycle clubs.
ATF investigations are notorious for the
unethical behavior of the Bureau’s undercover agents. In May, 2014, in
discussing an ATF drug entrapment, Federal District Judge Manuel L. Real
wrote: “It is unclear why the ATF, which has no authority over illicit
drugs, is trying to ensnare citizens in its fictitious stash house
robberies. Further, the government has provided no evidence that there
have been any stash house robberies in Southern California nor any
evidence of the necessity of trolling poor neighborhoods to ensnare its
poor citizens.”
Immediate Hiring Freeze
Sensenbrenner’s act calls for an
immediate hiring freeze at the Bureau and requires the Department of
Justice to eliminate and reduce duplicative functions and waste, as well
as report to Congress with a detailed plan on how the transition will
take place. Further, it would transfer enforcement of firearms,
explosives and arson laws to the FBI and illegal diversion of alcohol
and tobacco products would be transferred to the Drug Enforcement
Agency.
Under the bill, the DEA and FBI would be
required to submit to Congress a plan for winding down the affairs of
the ATF after no more than 180 days, and field offices, along with other
buildings and assets of the ATF, would be transferred to the FBI. The
ATF would have one year to report excess property to the General
Services Administration.
In a press release announcing the
reintroduction of his bill, Congressman Sensenbrenner wrote: “Despite
our country being trillions of dollars in debt, government spending
continues to rise. Common sense budgeting solutions are necessary, and
the ATF Elimination Act is one measure we can take to reduce spending,
redundancy, and practice responsible governance. The ATF is a
scandal-ridden, largely duplicative agency that has been branded by
failure and lacks a clear mission. It is plagued by backlogs, funding
gaps, hiring challenges, and a lack of leadership. These facts make it a
logical place to begin draining the swamp and acting in the best
interest of the American taxpayer.”
