GIFFORDS: House GOP defunds the police
House GOP voted for appropriations bill that cuts $417 million from ATF budget, the lowest budget to federal law enforcement in a decade
WASHINGTON — GIFFORDS, the national gun violence prevention group led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, denounced the House Appropriations Committee’s advancement of the FY2026 Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act that defunds the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) by $417 million, giving the agency the lowest operating budget in a decade, and completely defunds the lifesaving Community Based Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative (CVIPI). got it. The appropriations package also includes reckless policy riders that would set gun violence prevention work back by decades.
“Guns are the number one killer of children and teens in this country, and House Republicans just voted to make gun crime worse. Today, they chose to defund the ATF, the primary federal agency tasked with fighting violent gun crime, while putting community violence intervention workers out of work, and leaving communities without resources,” said GIFFORDS Executive Director Emma Brown. “Despite all their ‘tough on crime’ talk, House Republicans just defunded the police and critical programs in order to reward their gun industry CEO donors. These decisions will cost lives and.”
The bill also cuts critical programs:
- The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) is funded at $640.50 million, a $72.5 million cut from the previous year. The bill also does not fund the Homicide Reduction Initiative and the Domestic Violence Firearms Lethality Reduction Initiative.
- Second Chance Act programs, which provide grants to improve reentry services for individuals returning to communities after incarceration, is receiving a $10.8 million cut.
- The bill does not include any funding for two grant programs that fund hate crime investigation and prevention work: the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer NO HATE Act Program and the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Grants Program. The FY25 CR funded the programs at $9 million and $17 million, respectively.
- The bill cuts $5 million from the Children Exposed to Violence Awareness and Intervention Initiative, which was funded at $9 million in the FY25 CR.
The bill also includes reckless policy riders that would set back gun violence prevention work for years:
- Completely removing silencers and short barreled firearms from the regulations of the National Firearms Act by prohibiting federal authorities from enforcing the law on these particularly dangerous firearms.
- A prohibition on the use of funds to require gun dealers to report to DOJ information on the sale of multiple rifles or shotguns to the same person, undermining ATF’s authority to address gun trafficking.
- A prohibition on the use of funds to implement any ATF rule issued or finalized January 21, 2021 or later, which would include rules about ghost guns and the definition of “engaged in the business.”
- A prohibition on the use of funds to enforce the ATF final rule “Factoring Criteria for Firearms with Attached ‘Stabilizing Braces’,” which regulates certain stabilizing braces used to create short-barreled rifles, unusually dangerous firearms that can be concealed but also fire rifle ammunition.
- A prohibition on the use of funds to implement extreme risk protection order laws.
- Defunding state and local law enforcement in states that refuse to recognize all other states’ concealed carry permits, even those issued to dangerous individuals who have never been trained in how to safely use a firearm.
Republicans are making it harder for local police to keep communities safe, all while gun industry CEOs profit. Click here to learn more.
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