House Appropriator Threatens to Block Justice Funding Over Gun Control

The chairman of a House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Justice Department has threatened to withhold funding in fiscal 2016 and 2017 because of the executive order regulating gun purchases that President Obama unveiled Tuesday morning.

“The House Appropriations Committee will not provide resources to your department for the development of unlawful limitations on the unambiguous Second Amendment rights of Americans,” wrote Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, in a letter Monday to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

Emphasizing the committee’s expectation that the department will “allocate its resources to the enforcement of existing law,” Culberson said he looks “forward to reviewing a fiscal year spending plan and fiscal year budget request that enforces federal law and does not create new law.”

Obama’s order would seek to close the so-called gun show loophole for purchases in part by adding hundreds of employees to the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.