Gil C/Shutterstock.com

Report: Merge the ATF with the FBI

Agency is an “accident of history” and lacks a coherent mission, think tank says.

An “identity crisis” plagues the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives caused by tensions between its roles in law enforcement and regulation, says a think tank report released Tuesday. Its solution: merge the controversial 150-year-old agency with the “politically strong” FBI.

The liberal-leaning Center for American Progress, following two-years of research, made the recommendation because ATF was “originally not designed to be a police agency and often lacks the internal management and oversight structure required for consistently effective federal law enforcement operations.”

The bureau serves “crucial” regulatory functions in the area of gun control, and yet “has often channeled scarce resources away from the regulatory side of the house and has marginalized the regulatory personnel within the agency,” the report said. “This lack of a clear focus on either enforcement or regulation has prevented ATF from fulfilling any part of its mission quite well enough.”

Hence Congress and the Obama administration should merge ATF with the FBI, making ATF a subordinate division to address “inadequate management, insufficient resources and burdensome restrictions, and lack of coordination.”

Founded originally as a tax-collection authority, ATF was moved from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department in 2002. Leadership has long been a challenge for the agency. While Todd Jones was confirmed as ATF director in July 2013, he stepped down in March; prior to his confirmation the agency was without permanent leadership for seven years.

The agency has long been a lightning rod for gun rights advocates, including the National Rifle Association. ATF came under intense scrutiny several years ago for an ill-conceived program that aimed to tie straw weapons buyers in the United States to Mexican drug cartels through a series of sting operations, one of which became known as Fast and Furious.

In its report, the Center for American Progress stresses ATF’s mission of gun control. “Every day in America, assailants using guns murder 33 people,” it notes.

One advantage of the merger would be to improve FBI’s relationships with federal and local law enforcement, said the report, which was written by policy analysts and one former ATF special agent.

The FBI “has a poor reputation for partnership with other federal law enforcement agencies, especially when compared with ATF,” it said. A 2011 Government Accountability Office report exploring jurisdictional overlap between ATF, FBI, the Drug Enforcement Agency and the U.S. Marshals Service found that one-third of agents experienced disagreements with another agency over the previous five years, with 78 percent saying it negatively affected an investigation.

ATF’s budget, the report said, has “stagnated” in the past decade. Between 2005 and 2014, the FBI’s budget increased 62 percent, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s budget increased 46 percent, and Customs and Border Protection’s budget increased 94 percent. But ATF’s hike, from some $878 million in 2005 to $1.18 billion in 2014, is “a modest increase of around 34 percent that, when adjusted for inflation, amounts to only a 10 percent increase.”

A merger might also raise morale, the report added. The agency has dropped to 138th in the Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey rankings of leadership.

Asked to respond, Justice Department public affairs spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said his department “supports ATF in its current form and believes Congress should fully fund the president's budget request that will enhance ATF's ability to carry out its important mission.” Praising ATF employees for their work in combatting violence and illegal weapons trafficking, he said the agency “continues taking innovative steps to strengthen their investigative capabilities and implement its frontline business model—a data-driven approach that focuses the agency's resources to achieve maximum impact."

(Image via Gil C/Shutterstock.com)

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.