Instead of increasing funding to the ATF, Congress should investigate the agency’s misuse of millions in taxpayer dollars, says the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Second Amendment Foundation’s lobbyist arm.
According to two whistleblowers in the ATF’s human resources department, the agency wasted millions by classifying office personnel as law enforcement and paying them the corresponding higher wages and benefits. The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) confirmed the whistleblower reports, and Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner alerted the White House of the findings earlier this month. In his letter to President Biden, Kerner wrote, “These positions had been intentionally misclassified to be within the law enforcement job series.”
Kerner noted that the Office of Personnel Management had identified 91 misclassified positions, while the ATF on its own found 17 more – a total of 108 positions.
“This is a poor example of our tax dollars at work,” CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said in a Friday statement. “It reinforces the perception of an agency out of control. Is it any wonder that America’s gun owners have mistrust for the agency? The only way to get ATF’s attention is to deny its funding while a thorough investigation is conducted.”
Meanwhile, the Biden Administration’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2024 raises ATF funding 7.4 percent to $1.9 billion in taxpayer money to “expand multijurisdictional gun trafficking strike forces with additional personnel, increase regulation of the firearms industry, and implement the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.”
The agency apparently has reassigned 36 people out of the questionable positions, while 14 more have retired. There’s even a “classification expert” involved now, according to Kerner’s letter, but Gottlieb was not impressed. Obviously, the 2A group maintains the agency shouldn’t get a pay raise for wasting up to $20 million of taxpayer money.
“While Congress is handling this, there should be no budget approval for the agency, especially one providing a 7.4 percent increase over the ATF budget during Fiscal Year 2023,” Gottlieb said. “ATF has been a troubled agency for decades, and its recent flip-flop on arm braces is just the tip of the iceberg. Has anyone been held accountable for this apparent mismanagement?”
Related: ‘Brace’ yourselves! How to Sue the ATF
Banner photo: A Diplomatic Security Service special agent (left) coordinates with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to secure delegate arrivals at the United Nations for the 74th United Nations General Assembly in New York City, Sept. 23, 2019. (Photo: U.S. Department of State)
