Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB613 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	I
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION H. R. 613
5	5	To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the Bureau of
6	6	Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to establish an administrative
7	7	relief process for individuals whose applications for transfer and registra-
8	8	tion of a firearm were denied, and for other purposes.
9	9	IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
10	10	JANUARY22, 2025
11	11	Mr. F
12	12	ULCHERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
13	13	mittee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on the Ju-
14	14	diciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
15	15	each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
16	16	tion of the committee concerned
17	17	A BILL
18	18	To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require
19	19	the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explo-
20	20	sives to establish an administrative relief process for
21	21	individuals whose applications for transfer and registra-
22	22	tion of a firearm were denied, and for other purposes.
23	23	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
24	24	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
25	25	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
26	26	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ATF Transparency 4
27	27	Act’’. 5
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30	30	•HR 613 IH
31	31	SEC. 2. ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF FOR DENIAL OF FIREARM 1
32	32	TRANSFER APPLICATION. 2
33	33	(a) I
34	34	NGENERAL.—Section 5812 of the Internal Rev-3
35	35	enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 4
36	36	following new subsection: 5
37	37	‘‘(c) A
38	38	DMINISTRATIVERELIEF.— 6
39	39	‘‘(1) I
40	40	N GENERAL.—With respect to any appli-7
41	41	cation described in subsection (a) for the transfer 8
42	42	and registration of a firearm which is denied by the 9
43	43	Secretary based on a determination that transferring 10
44	44	the firearm to the transferee would violate sub-11
45	45	section (d) of section 922 of title 18, United States 12
46	46	Code, or receipt of the firearm by the transferee 13
47	47	would violate subsection (g) or (n) of that section or 14
48	48	State, local, or tribal law, the Secretary shall— 15
49	49	‘‘(A) provide the transferee with the rel-16
50	50	evant NICS transaction number with respect to 17
51	51	such application, 18
52	52	‘‘(B) permit such transferee to appeal such 19
53	53	denial to the Secretary in a manner similar to 20
54	54	the process for appeals provided under section 21
55	55	25.10 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, 22
56	56	and 23
57	57	‘‘(C) permit such transferee to provide in-24
58	58	formation to the Secretary to prevent any sub-25
59	59	sequent erroneous denial or extended delay by 26
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62	62	•HR 613 IH
63	63	NICS pursuant to a program (as established by 1
64	64	the Secretary) similar to the Voluntary Appeal 2
65	65	File program described in section 25.10(g) of 3
66	66	title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. 4
67	67	‘‘(2) A
68	68	TTORNEY FEES.—In the case of any suc-5
69	69	cessful appeal by the transferee pursuant to the 6
70	70	process described in paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary 7
71	71	shall reimburse the transferee for any reasonable 8
72	72	and necessary attorney fees incurred with respect to 9
73	73	such appeal. 10
74	74	‘‘(3) NICS.—For purposes of this subsection, 11
75	75	the term ‘NICS’ means the national instant criminal 12
76	76	background check system established under section 13
77	77	103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act 14
78	78	(34 U.S.C. 40901).’’. 15
79	79	(b) E
80	80	FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 16
81	81	this section shall apply to applications for the transfer and 17
82	82	registration of a firearm which are filed or pending on or 18
83	83	after the date of enactment of this Act. 19
84	84	SEC. 3. TIMELY PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS. 20
85	85	(a) T
86	86	RANSFER OFFIREARMS.—Section 5812 of the 21
87	87	Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by section 22
88	88	2, is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-23
89	89	section: 24
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92	92	•HR 613 IH
93	93	‘‘(d) PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS.—Notwith-1
94	94	standing subsection (a), if an application described in such 2
95	95	subsection with respect to the transfer and registration of 3
96	96	a firearm has been filed with the Secretary and the Sec-4
97	97	retary fails to make a determination regarding whether 5
98	98	to approve or deny such application prior to the date which 6
99	99	is 90 calendar days after the date on which such applica-7
100	100	tion was originally filed by the transferor, the transfer and 8
101	101	registration of such firearm to the transferee shall be 9
102	102	deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur-10
103	103	poses of this section and such transfer may be made. The 11
104	104	Secretary shall only deny an application described in sub-12
105	105	section (a) on the grounds that the applicable require-13
106	106	ments under such subsection have not been satisfied, and 14
107	107	may not deny an application solely on the grounds that 15
108	108	a determination regarding whether to approve or deny 16
109	109	such application could not be completed by the Secretary 17
110	110	during the period described in the preceding sentence.’’. 18
111	111	(b) M
112	112	AKING OFFIREARMS.—Section 5822 of the In-19
113	113	ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 20
114	114	end the following: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding sen-21
115	115	tences, if a person files an application to make and reg-22
116	116	ister a firearm with the Secretary and the Secretary fails 23
117	117	to make a determination regarding whether to approve or 24
118	118	deny such application prior to the date which is 90 cal-25
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121	121	•HR 613 IH
122	122	endar days after the date on which such application was 1
123	123	originally filed by such person, such application shall be 2
124	124	deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur-3
125	125	poses of this section and such firearm may be made by 4
126	126	such person. The Secretary shall only deny an application 5
127	127	to make and register a firearm on the grounds that the 6
128	128	applicable requirements under this section have not been 7
129	129	satisfied, and may not deny an application solely on the 8
130	130	grounds that a determination regarding whether to ap-9
131	131	prove or deny such application could not be completed by 10
132	132	the Secretary during the period described in the preceding 11
133	133	sentence.’’. 12
134	134	(c) E
135	135	FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 13
136	136	this section shall apply to applications which are filed or 14
137	137	pending on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 15
138	138	SEC. 4. REPORTS AND AGREEMENTS. 16
139	139	(a) U
140	140	NRESOLVEDNICS CHECKS.—Not later than 17
141	141	180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 18
142	142	Comptroller General of the United States, in conjunction 19
143	143	with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, 20
144	144	shall submit a report to Congress— 21
145	145	(1) detailing the number of NICS inquiries re-22
146	146	ceived during the period of calendar years 2010 23
147	147	through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a fire-24
148	148	arm which remained unresolved following the expira-25
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151	151	•HR 613 IH
152	152	tion of the 90-day period described in section 1
153	153	25.9(b)(1) of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations; 2
154	154	and 3
155	155	(2) providing recommendations for administra-4
156	156	tive actions to be adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, 5
157	157	Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to minimize the 6
158	158	number of unresolved NICS inquiries described in 7
159	159	paragraph (1). 8
160	160	(b) A
161	161	DMINISTRATION OF NICS CHECKS.—Not later 9
162	162	than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 10
163	163	the Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall 11
164	164	submit a report to Congress regarding the percentage of 12
165	165	NICS inquiries during the period of calendar years 2014 13
166	166	through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a firearm 14
167	167	which were administered by the Federal Bureau of Inves-15
168	168	tigation on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire-16
169	169	arms, and Explosives. 17
170	170	(c) M
171	171	EMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—Not later 18
172	172	than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 19
173	173	the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 20
174	174	and Explosives and the Director of the Federal Bureau 21
175	175	of Investigation shall enter into a memorandum of under-22
176	176	standing regarding the administration and processing of 23
177	177	NICS inquiries with respect to the transfer of firearms. 24
178	178	(d) D
179	179	EFINITIONS.—In this section— 25
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182	182	•HR 613 IH
183	183	(1) FIREARM.—The term ‘‘firearm’’ has the 1
184	184	same meaning given such term under section 2
185	185	5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 3
186	186	(2) NICS.—The term ‘‘NICS’’ means the na-4
187	187	tional instant criminal background check system es-5
188	188	tablished under section 103 of the Brady Handgun 6
189	189	Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901). 7
190	190	Æ
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