Congress Wants To Keep Agency Despised By Gun Lovers Flush With Cash
Congress should continue funding the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) at levels similar to what the agency received under the Biden administration, according to the text of a government funding bill it is considering.
The ATF, a federal agency long criticized by pro-Second Amendment groups, is expected to receive just under $1.6 billion from this bill, roughly the same amount the agency received in fiscal year 2023, during the administration of former President Joe Biden. Prominent Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who favors gun control, also touted that Trump’s proposal to cut the ATF’s budget and merge it with the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) was not included in legislation backed by Republican Party leaders in a Monday press release. (RELATED: Schumer rushes to block Trump administration’s success in Venezuela, despite previous calls for regime change)
“The bill rejects President Trump’s proposal to merge the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and significantly reduce resources in both areas, gutting key federal law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing the nation’s gun and drug laws and keeping people safe,” Van Hollen said.
🚨BREAKING: The House budget bill, released this morning, approves funding for the ATF at Biden-era levels of $1.6 BILLION.
This decision completely ignores the 25% reduction proposed by President Trump!
We must defund the ATF without compromise. pic.twitter.com/EcqI4v7Fbg
– National Gun Rights Association (@gunrights) January 5, 2026
The National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) has criticized the version of the bill currently passing Congress, primarily targeting Republicans, who hold majorities in the House and Senate. Pro-Second Amendment organizations and gun owners have long called for drastic reforms and cuts to the ATF over regulations and allegations of past abuse and harassment.
“It is infuriating to see his creditors outright reject President Trump’s bold and common-sense plan to slash ATF funding; a long-overdue reform that would have finally put a dent in a rogue agency after decades of relentless trampling on Second Amendment rights,” NAGR communications director Taylor Rhodes told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Instead, Congress pushed back on the issue, preserving the bloated status quo and stripping away hard-won pro-2A protections that gun owners demanded and deserved. »
“President Trump rightly called for a sweeping $400 million cut to the ATF, but Congress agreed to a $40 million cut – an insult to gun owners who are tired of being the target of an unelected and unaccountable bureaucracy,” said Aidan Johnston, director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America (GOA), in a statement to DCNF. “This cut does almost nothing to rein in an agency that has spent years harassing law-abiding Americans while trampling on the Second Amendment. »
“Gun Owners of America will not stop fighting until the ATF is abolished and the constitutional rights it eroded are fully restored,” Johnston continued. “That said, we are encouraged that Congress listened to our warnings and roundly rejected the Trump administration’s reckless proposal to merge the ATF with the DEA – a dangerous consolidation of federal power that would have only increased abuse, not accountability. »
Georgia Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde listed several provisions he accused budget negotiators of “abandoning” in the final language, including deferring funding for sections of the National Gun Act whose taxes were reduced to zero in the reconciliation bill signed by Trump in July, blocking the use of funds for several regulations imposed under the Biden administration, and cutting the ATF budget by 25%.
“These critical Second Amendment protections were ENDED during negotiations. I offered several amendments to continue to fight for these pro-2A provisions,” Clyde posted on
The Trump administration proposed merging the ATF with the DEA in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) budget request for fiscal year 2026, an idea that gun rights organizations have widely criticized. The administration has also been criticized by Second Amendment supporters for defending the registration provisions after pro-gun groups sued to strike them down, citing the tax cut — even after creating a Second Amendment office within the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division. Both the ATF and DEA are agencies of the DOJ.
As a member of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, I fought to include the pro-2A cuts and policy riders in the CJS FY26 appropriations bill.
These include:
DEFUNDING ATF’s Illegal Gun Registry
DEFUNDING gun protection rule
DEFUNDING Committed to the Business Rule
DEFUNDING Frame &…– Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) January 8, 2026
“A gun control superagency would undoubtedly be weaponized against the people’s 2A rights,” GOA posted on X on June 23, 2025. “This MUST be stopped!” » (RELATED: Alan Dershowitz explains why the Supreme Court ended up upholding Biden’s ‘Ghost Gun’ crackdown)
The ATF came under fire after a December 2010 shootout in which Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was killed by a gun that was later determined to have been allowed to hit a Mexican cartel as part of a botched sting operation codenamed “Operation Fast and Furious.”
The National Rifle Association, the Firearms Policy Coalition and the White House did not immediately respond to DCNF’s requests for comment.
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