After more than two centuries of history with the Treasury Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms on Friday will report to a new boss: the Justice Department.
ATF and Justice Department officials say the shift will give the ATF a tighter focus on law enforcement, and will allow it to coordinate more closely with the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and other agencies. The move is part of a broader reshuffling after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that led to the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.
"Suddenly it was clear that something different needed to be done," said ATF Director Bradley A. Buckles, who has been with the agency since 1974. "This will help make sure we are on the same page in how we interact and work together."
But the move has been met with resistance from some in the FBI, which has had a rocky relationship with the ATF and which historically has sought to gain more control over firearms and explosives cases.
The change is also attracting scrutiny from gun control groups, which fear the agency's mission to regulate gun purchases will be compromised by Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, a strong gun-rights advocate and lifetime member of the National Rifle Association. The NRA has had its own run-ins with the ATF, which it has often characterized as overzealous in its treatment of innocent gun owners.
"You couldn't find a scarier time to put the ATF in the Department of Justice, when you have the most pro-gun attorney general in history," said Matthew Nosanchuk, litigation director for the Violence Policy Center, which favors stricter regulation of firearms. "It's like the fox guarding the henhouse."
Adam Ciongoli, Ashcroft's legal counsel, said, "We have no intention of politicizing the ATF. Their job will continue to be the enforcement of federal gun laws."
NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox said, "Whether ATF is at DOJ or the Department of Education, it makes no difference. There are still legitimate concerns and issues that we'll be keeping an eye on."
The ATF, which can trace its roots to the late 1700s, has long seemed out of place among the tax collectors and banking experts at Treasury. The increasing federal interest in governing firearms, along with aggressive efforts to stem violent crime rates, had transformed the ATF primarily into a law enforcement agency, even though it collected the most tax revenue for the government behind the Internal Revenue Service.
As a result, officials have discussed various plans to move, merge or eliminate the ATF for decades. Now with the U.S. Customs Service and the Secret Service, both Treasury agencies, headed for the Homeland Security Department, the Bush administration and Congress decided that it made sense to move the ATF into Justice at the same time.
"They're going to come under the same boss, which will make it easier than it was in the past, when you had Justice and Treasury in competition," said Richard J. Gallo, president of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association. "There might be fewer elbows thrown around."
Still, one of the biggest potential stumbling blocks is the often-strained relationship between the ATF and the FBI, said many government officials and outside observers. The two agencies have clashed periodically, including disputes over the Waco confrontation and over control of the crime scene at the Pentagon after the crash of hijacked American Airlines Flight 77.
Most recently, an unidentified midlevel FBI official wrote an internal memo asserting that the ATF was too small, lacked sufficient training to lead investigations and had a "lack of strategic vision." FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III quickly discounted the document, and pledged his support for moving the ATF into the Justice Department.
Buckles said many of the reported tensions are "exaggerated," and he pointed to the recent sniper investigation in the Washington area as a prime example of cooperation between the two.
"We work well with and cooperatively with the FBI all over the country, and we do it every day," said Buckles. "Being in the same department is going to help on some of those issues, as well."
Officials said the ATF will retain about 4,600 employees after Friday's move, leaving behind about 550 others to continue collecting revenue for Treasury.
The agency will remain in its current leased offices near the MCI Center, awaiting a move to new headquarters in Northeast Washington in about two years.
The bureau will also get a name change -- to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- but will stick with the well-known ATF moniker. The new name comes in part from added enforcement powers under the new Safe Explosives Act, which subjects explosives purchasers to some of the restrictions and background checks required for gun buyers.
ATF Director Bradley A. Buckles: "We work well . . . with the FBI."FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III has pledged support for the ATF move to the Justice Department.
