Gun Control: FY2017 Appropriations for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and Other Initiatives

Summary

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) is the lead federal agency charged with administering and enforcing federal laws related to firearms and explosives commerce. ATF is also responsible for investigating arson cases with a federal nexus, and criminal cases involving the diversion of alcohol and tobacco from legal channels of commerce. As an agency within the Department of Justice (DOJ), ATF is funded through an annual appropriation in the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Act.

The Administration’s FY2017 budget request included $1.306 billion for ATF. This amount was $66.1 million above the FY2016 appropriation. This proposed increase included $11.8 million in technical and base adjustments to anticipate inflation and other variable costs and $54.3 million in budget enhancements. As part of President Barack Obama’s gun safety initiative, these budget enhancements include

$35.6 million for ATF to hire 80 additional special agents and 120 industry operations investigators;

$4 million (including 8 positions) to upgrade the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN) hardware and software;

$5.7 million and 22 positions to process firearms and explosives licenses and National Firearms Act (NFA) applications, and expand the use of firearms trace data by ATF and other federal and state law enforcement agencies; and

$9 million to integrate ATF’s case management systems into a single system.

The FY2017 budget request called for the repeal of two limitations that prevent ATF from (1) requiring federal firearms licensees (FFLs) to inventory their gun stocks prior to inspection and (2) changing an administrative definition of “curios and relics.” This report includes an appendix that provides a legislative history for several ATF funding limitations related to gun control. It also includes discussion of year-to-year data trends that could affect ATF workloads, such as the number and type of FFLs, growth in the civilian gun stock, and firearms-related violent crime.

In addition, the President’s gun safety initiative includes

$35 million for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to address an increase in firearms background checks through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS);

$55 million for grants to state, local, tribal, and territorial authorities under the National Criminal History Improvement Program (NCHIP) and NICS Amendments Record Improvement Program (NARIP, P.L. 110-180); and

$10 million for gun violence research.

NICS was established in November 1998 by the FBI to facilitate an electronic background check process to determine firearms eligibility of unlicensed, private persons seeking to acquire firearms from FFLs, or firearms permits and licenses from state authorities. Through both NCHIP and NARIP, the DOJ Office of Justice Programs provides grants to states, tribes, and territories to improve NICS access to records on persons prohibited from acquiring firearms under federal or state law.

The Senate Committee on Appropriations reported a bill (S. 2837) that would have provided ATF with $1.259 billion for FY2017. On June 7, 2016, The House Committee on Appropriations reported a bill (H.R. 5393) that would have provided ATF with $1.258 billion for FY2017. Report language indicates that both bills would have fully supported the FBI and NICS. The Senate bill would have provided $75 million for NCHIP and NARIP grants; the House bill would have provided $73 million.

Neither Committee included funding for gun violence research in the reported Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education Appropriations bills (S. 3040 and H.R. 5926). Both Committees included limitations in these bills that would continue to prohibit the use of appropriated funding to advocate or promote gun control.

On September 29, 2016, President Obama signed into law a Continuing Appropriations Act, 2017 (P.L. 114-203), which funds most of the federal government through December 9, 2016 at the same levels as appropriated for FY2016. This continuing resolution also extends the long-standing gun control limitations discussed above through that date.