Treasury may transfer ATF to Justice

The Bush administration has proposed moving the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms from the Treasury Department to the Justice Department, a senior Treasury official said Wednesday.

The move would further diminish the Treasury Department, which is already slated to lose the Customs Service and the Secret Service to the proposed Department of Homeland Security.

The Treasury official said that because the government is in the midst of the largest reorganization since World War II, Treasury officials decided it was prudent and timely to consider the best home for the 5,000-employee ATF. The bureau investigates arson and bombing cases, regulates and tracks firearms and collects revenue on alcohol and tobacco. Because its mission is primarily law enforcement, the bureau fits better in the Justice Department than in the Treasury Department, the official said, adding "It's efficient and it makes common sense."

The Customs Service has 20,000 employees and the Secret Service has 6,000. If those two agencies become part of the Homeland Security Department and ATF is transferred to Justice, then Treasury would lose 20 percent of its 160,000-person workforce.

Treasury officials are discussing their ATF proposal with members of Congress, who would need to approve a move of the ATF. The official said the revenue collection function, through which ATF collected $12.1 billion in fiscal 1999, could remain at Treasury.

ATF became an independent agency in 1972, having been split away from the Internal Revenue Service.

Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, respectively the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have proposed moving ATF into the new Department of Homeland Security, rather than Justice.

The senators have also proposed moving the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center from Treasury to Justice. The House, in its version of the homeland security legislation, also proposed moving the center to Justice. Members of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, meanwhile, proposed moving the training center to the Department of Homeland Security. The center trains law enforcement personnel for dozens of agencies across government.

Treasury officials have not proposed transferring the training center to either of the other departments.