Bondi defends Justice Department proposal to end standalone ATF
Source: Roll Call
Posted June 23, 2025 at 6:50pm
Attorney General Pamela Bondi on Monday defended a Trump administration proposal to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a major shakeup experts say would likely require congressional action to implement.
The Justice Department in a fiscal 2026 budget request has outlined a plan to merge ATF functions into the Drug Enforcement Administration, which would remain a single component. Bondi got questions about the plan during a House Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee hearing.
Groups on both sides of the gun debate have found rare agreement in opposing the plan, though for different reasons. Gun control advocates say it will weaken enforcement, while one prominent gun owner rights organization called the merger idea an “abomination” that would “create a taxpayer-funded super agency to target gun owners.”
Bondi told lawmakers that “guns and drugs go together” and the merger would be a “great marriage between those two agencies.” “They’re working hand-in-hand on task forces already. Now, they will be working under one umbrella, and it’s going to be great for our country,” Bondi said. “Bureaucracy has been around for a very long time, and just because things have been done one way for decades and decades doesn’t mean that is the most efficient way to do them in the future,” she said.
Read more: https://rollcall.com/2025/06/23/bondi-defends-justice-department-proposal-to-end-standalone-atf/
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