Biden’s pick to lead ATF in spotlight at Senate hearing after Texas elementary school shooting
CNN
By Clare Foran and Lauren Fox, CNN
President Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will come under scrutiny at a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday with the nation’s attention focused on gun violence after a horrific shooting at a Texas elementary school.
An 18-year-old gunman on Tuesday fatally shot 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school before he was killed by law enforcement officers, officials said. It is the deadliest shooting at a school since the Sandy Hook massacre in Connecticut in 2012 that left 26 people dead, including 20 children aged between 6 and 7 years old.
The tragedy has shocked the nation and ratcheted up the pressure on Congress and the President to take action, though Democrats can do little to pass stricter gun control measures in a 50-50 Senate amid widespread Republican opposition.
Against that backdrop, the Senate Judiciary Committee will consider the nomination of Steve Dettelbach to run the ATF during a hearing on Wednesday.
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, described the tragedy as “devastating” and “unconscionable.”
Durbin will work with his Democratic colleagues to schedule hearings on gun violence in America when lawmakers return from their Memorial Day recess, he said.
Durbin said Democrats are committed to action, but he conceded that it woul be an uphill lift to get Republican votes.
“The President was right — it’s time for us to stand up and fight back as a nation,” Durbin said. “We are loath to call ourselves leaders in this country if we don’t address it.”
Dettelbach could be confirmed in the Senate without any GOP votes if all Democrats vote in favor and Vice President Kama Harris breaks a tie.
Durbin called Dettelbach “well-qualified” and emphasized the importance of the nomination.
“This is an agency which has the technical capacity to help us to solve gun crimes and to keep guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them,” he said.
But Democratic unity is not guaranteed on the contentious issue of gun policy. And the White House has already suffered an embarrassing setback over its efforts to confirm a nominee to head the bureau last fall.
In September 2021, the White House withdrew the nomination of David Chipman to lead the bureau. Biden put the blame on Republicans for the inability to get Chipman confirmed, even though there had been stiff resistance among moderate Democrats and independent Maine Sen. Angus King — as well as GOP senators — over Chipman’s past record on gun control.
The incident laid bare the reality of confirming someone to a post that has made past comments on such a sensitive and divisive issue as gun control, something that is sure to once again be front and center in Dettelbach’s hearing. Dettelbach made clear he supported universal background checks and a ban on assault-style weapons during his bid to be attorney general of Ohio in 2018. Those positions are expected to face scrutiny Wednesday.
Dettelbach is a former federal prosecutor and was previously unanimously confirmed by the Senate to serve as the US attorney for the Northern District of Ohio under President Barack Obama.
The ATF has operated under a series of acting directors since its last Senate-confirmed leader stepped down in 2015, and the Senate last confirmed an ATF nominee in 2013.
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CNN’s Manu Raju, Kate Sullivan and Eric Levenson contributed
