From the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:
Bill by Jim Sensenbrenner would dissolve federal ATF agency
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would be eliminated under a bill in the works from U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.).
Citing ATF's recent operational failures and its overlap with other federal law enforcement, Sensenbrenner is preparing a bill to dissolve the agency and have existing agencies in the U.S. Justice Department take on its duties.
"By absorbing the ATF into existing law enforcement entities, we can preserve the areas where the ATF adds value for substantially less taxpayer money," Sensenbrenner said. "While searching for its mission, the ATF has been plagued by decades of high-profile blunders....We cannot afford to ignore clear changes that will greatly enhance the government's efficiency."
A new Government Accountability Office report on the ATF released Wednesday found an agency trying to redefine itself while struggling with high personnel turnover and problems tracking its own criminal investigations.
The GAO report is the latest in a series of documents and studies going back more than two decades that are critical of the agency's overlap with other law enforcement. At least two of those reports have called for the ATF to be dissolved and its responsibility folded into other federal agencies. The ATF received $12 billion from Congress between 2003 and 2013.
Makes a lot of sense - a bit on ATF's origins:
The ATF began as a revenue-collecting agency with roots reaching back to the 1880s. It enforced Prohibition-era laws, and with the passage of the 1968 Gun Control Act it became a separate agency.
Today, it has a dual role of regulating and collecting taxes on the industry under its umbrella and also acting as a law enforcement agency.
Congress has increasingly limited ATF's ability to regulate the gun dealers, for instance only allowing inspectors to visit dealers once a year and not requiring dealers to take annual inventory. These rules have allowed corrupt dealers to escape accountability.
The ATF has been on the chopping block before. It was considered for elimination during former President Ronald Reagan's term but was saved, in part, because gun rights groups didn't want its duties moving to another agency.
Under the Clinton Administration, a group studying how to cut government waste suggested folding ATF's law enforcement activities into existing Justice Department agencies and putting the agency's regulatory and revenue functions under the Internal Revenue Service. It also suggested folding the Drug Enforcement Administration into the FBI.
The article has a lot more detail. This makes sense and has been proposed before several times. The FBI actually functions pretty efficiently and it could take over the functions of the BATFE with minimal fuss on either side.
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