By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) this week asked Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz to launch an investigation into whistleblower allegations that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had engaged in “substantial waste, mismanagement and unlawful employment practices.”
The announcement came less than a week after the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms had called for a congressional investigation of the allegations—first revealed in a bulletin earlier this month from the Office of Special Counsel—before approving the agency’s $1.9 billion FY 2024 budget request.
The OSC bulletin went to Congress and President Joe Biden in early May. In that bulletin, OSC reported, “Two whistleblowers from ATF’s human resources office disclosed to OSC that ATF unlawfully provided law enforcement pay and benefits to agents and investigators who filled non-law-enforcement positions, such as in human resources. These positions had been intentionally misclassified to be within the law enforcement job series. The agency substantiated the allegations, finding long-standing misclassification of upper-level jobs, which resulted in ATF overpaying agents by up to $20 million over a five-year period. That cost could be much higher given that the unlawful job classifications had been common practice at ATF far longer than the five-year timeframe reviewed by investigators.”
In her letter to Horowitz, Sen. Ernst stated, “This resulted in ATF bureaucrats being provided pay and benefits reserved for those law enforcement personnel including enhanced retirement benefits and premium pay rates.
CCRKBA Asks Congress To Investigate Alleged ATF ‘Unlawful Practices’
“The American people deserve to know the full extent of the ATF bureaucrats’ dishonest dealings,” Sen. Ernst observed. “It is incumbent upon all public servants to act with the utmost levels of professionalism but when bureaucrats abuse the public trust it is the responsibility of watchdogs to hold the bad actors accountable for their malfeasance.”
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb reacted quickly to Sen. Ernst’s demand: “We are encouraged that Sen. Ernst has taken this action. Allegations of waste, mismanagement and unlawful employment practices by a federal agency cannot be taken lightly or simply ignored, and the public deserves some answers.
“For far too long,” he said, “the ATF has had a less-than-stellar reputation for its involvement in various operations, including an embarrassing sting operation in Milwaukee, Operation Wide Receiver and, of course, Operation Fast and Furious, which put thousands of guns into the hands of Mexican criminals.”
Gottlieb also criticized the agency for its flip-flop on the pistol stabilizing brace, which has created trouble for millions of law-abiding citizens who own the synthetic braces as accessories on their AR-15-type pistols.
“When word of the whistleblower complaints became public,” Gottlieb recalled, “we demanded an investigation, and we were delighted to learn Sen. Ernst wants the same level of scrutiny. The Biden administration has tried to weaponize the ATF to push its gun control agenda, and now the agency appears to have some serious in-house problems the Office of Special Counsel does not appear to have adequately addressed. It’s time to rein in the ATF. The American public deserves no less.”
