New Funding Bill for DOJ Includes Big Cut to ATF Budget, Deregulation of Some NFA Items

House Republicans are advancing a funding bill for the Department of Justice that includes a major cut in funding to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives as well as measures meant to fully remove suppressors and short-barreled firearms from the regulatory framework of the National Firearms Act. 

🚨BREAKING: Pro-2A wins in the FY27 CJS appropriations bill:

✅ Cuts ATF budget by $285M
✅ Defunds ATF’s illegal gun registry
✅ Defunds EVERY Biden-era ATF rule
✅ Prohibits NFA registration
✅ Reduces NFA wait times
✅ Prohibits gun buyback programs
✅ Defunds “Red Flag” laws

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) April 29, 2026

The bill has already drawn praise from Gun Owners of America, which echoed Rep. Clyde's checklist in a post on X. 

This FY 2027 funding bill for @TheJusticeDept is absolute 🔥

✅ $285M ATF Budget CUT
✅ Suppressors DEREGULATED
✅ Short Barrels DEREGULATED
✅ ATF-DEA Merger REJECTED
✅ Fast NFA Processing PROTECTED
✅ ATF's Illegal Gun Registry DELETED
✅ Frame & Receiver Rule DEFUNDED
✅… https://t.co/z9wiAVz92f

— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) April 29, 2026

President Donald Trump's proposed budget included $1.65 billion for the ATF, but the House appropriations bill would set the agency's budget at $1.3 billion. In addition, the appropriations bill would remove the NFA registration requirement for both suppressors and short-barreled firearms. That measure was part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, but was stripped out of the final language by the Senate parliamentarian. The $200 transfer tax has already been zeroed out as part of the OBBBA, and if the registration requirement is done away with then those items would essentially be regulated just like rifles, pistols, and shotguns that do not fall under the NFA's restrictions. 

The bill also contains a rider that would limit ATF funding if the agency does not process NFA applications in a timely manner, and as both Clyde and GOA points out, defunds all of the Biden-era rules put in place by the ATF. As Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche announced earliere today, most of those rules are going to be formally undone anyway, but that process takes time. If the House appropriations bill is adopted, then any rule that has not been formally repealed by the start of the 2027 fiscal year would still be unenforceable due to a lack of funding. 

Another important provision in the House bill prohibits the ATF from from digitally scanning the records of FFLs that have gone out of business, which can be used to build a backdoor registry of gun purchasers, or at least those who've bought a gun through an FFL in the past. 

House Republicans say the bill also supports the DOJ’s new Second Amendment Section under the Civil Rights Division, though there's no explicit mention of the Section that I can find in the text of the bill. It does look like the funding bill allows DOJ to allocate more resources to the Civil Rights Division, which would include the Second Amendment Section, but we'll hopefully be able to get some clarity on that language in the near future. 

I'm thrilled to see a number of provisions that Second Amendment groups and advocates have been asking for be included in the appropriations bill. Now we need to contact our House member and encourage them to adopt the bill as is, and with these pro-2A measures intact.  

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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