While earlier versions of the 2026 spending bill for federal gun regulators had a hefty budget cut and lots of restrictions on how it was spent, the current version looks a lot more 2024.
The House Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies bill, H.R.6938, passed the body on Jan. 8 in a fairly sweeping and bipartisan 397-28 vote. Now sent to the Senate, where RINO – and past gun control supporter – U.S. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) chairs the Appropriations Committee, the bill provides the ATF a budget very similar to what it enjoyed under the Biden administration.
Both the House and Senate versions have ATF with a $1.585 billion budget for fiscal year 2026 and little stipulations on how the money is spent. That figure is a slight drop from the agency's $1.618 billion enacted 2025 budget, which President Biden signed.
The figure also differs sharply from the Republican-controlled House's initial $1.2 billion proposed budget for the Bureau unveiled last July, working with the Trump administration's request. That level would have forced ATF to cut as many as 1,400 positions. Further, the original version would have defunded initiatives to police stabilizing braces or 80 percent lowers/frames, implement or promote so-called "red flag" laws, or enforce the fuzzy Biden-era "Engaged in the Business" rule on selling guns without an FFL.
"As a member of the CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, I fought to include pro-2A cuts and policy riders in the FY26 CJS appropriations bill," said U.S. Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga) after the bill was marked up. "Yet these critical Second Amendment protections were surrendered during negotiations."
It is expected that the package will be approved by Congress before the end of the month.
Pro-2A groups such as Gun Owners of America and the National Association of Gun Rights are asking members and concerned individuals to reach out to their lawmakers about the CJS bill.
"When put in position to cut the ATF budget and roll back Biden-era gun grabs, Speaker Johnson and Congress folded quicker than Nicolás Maduro’s bodyguards," said NAGR in a statement. "And now the Senate is next, with Senators like Susan Collins leading the charge, it could get worse. Collins has been the architect of a plan to extend Biden-era ATF funding, putting more gun-grabbing agents on the streets, and ignoring the cuts House Republicans should have delivered."
