I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 613
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to establish an administrative
relief process for individuals whose applications for transfer and registra-
tion of a firearm were denied, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY22, 2025
Mr. F
ULCHERintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Ways and Means, and in addition to the Committee on the Ju-
diciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in
each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdic-
tion of the committee concerned
A BILL
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require
the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explo-
sives to establish an administrative relief process for
individuals whose applications for transfer and registra-
tion of a firearm were denied, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ATF Transparency 4
Act’’. 5
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SEC. 2. ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF FOR DENIAL OF FIREARM 1
TRANSFER APPLICATION. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 5812 of the Internal Rev-3
enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 4
following new subsection: 5
‘‘(c) A
DMINISTRATIVERELIEF.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to any appli-7
cation described in subsection (a) for the transfer 8
and registration of a firearm which is denied by the 9
Secretary based on a determination that transferring 10
the firearm to the transferee would violate sub-11
section (d) of section 922 of title 18, United States 12
Code, or receipt of the firearm by the transferee 13
would violate subsection (g) or (n) of that section or 14
State, local, or tribal law, the Secretary shall— 15
‘‘(A) provide the transferee with the rel-16
evant NICS transaction number with respect to 17
such application, 18
‘‘(B) permit such transferee to appeal such 19
denial to the Secretary in a manner similar to 20
the process for appeals provided under section 21
25.10 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, 22
and 23
‘‘(C) permit such transferee to provide in-24
formation to the Secretary to prevent any sub-25
sequent erroneous denial or extended delay by 26
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NICS pursuant to a program (as established by 1
the Secretary) similar to the Voluntary Appeal 2
File program described in section 25.10(g) of 3
title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. 4
‘‘(2) A
TTORNEY FEES.—In the case of any suc-5
cessful appeal by the transferee pursuant to the 6
process described in paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary 7
shall reimburse the transferee for any reasonable 8
and necessary attorney fees incurred with respect to 9
such appeal. 10
‘‘(3) NICS.—For purposes of this subsection, 11
the term ‘NICS’ means the national instant criminal 12
background check system established under section 13
103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act 14
(34 U.S.C. 40901).’’. 15
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendment made by 16
this section shall apply to applications for the transfer and 17
registration of a firearm which are filed or pending on or 18
after the date of enactment of this Act. 19
SEC. 3. TIMELY PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS. 20
(a) T
RANSFER OFFIREARMS.—Section 5812 of the 21
Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by section 22
2, is amended by adding at the end the following new sub-23
section: 24
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‘‘(d) PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS.—Notwith-1
standing subsection (a), if an application described in such 2
subsection with respect to the transfer and registration of 3
a firearm has been filed with the Secretary and the Sec-4
retary fails to make a determination regarding whether 5
to approve or deny such application prior to the date which 6
is 90 calendar days after the date on which such applica-7
tion was originally filed by the transferor, the transfer and 8
registration of such firearm to the transferee shall be 9
deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur-10
poses of this section and such transfer may be made. The 11
Secretary shall only deny an application described in sub-12
section (a) on the grounds that the applicable require-13
ments under such subsection have not been satisfied, and 14
may not deny an application solely on the grounds that 15
a determination regarding whether to approve or deny 16
such application could not be completed by the Secretary 17
during the period described in the preceding sentence.’’. 18
(b) M
AKING OFFIREARMS.—Section 5822 of the In-19
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 20
end the following: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding sen-21
tences, if a person files an application to make and reg-22
ister a firearm with the Secretary and the Secretary fails 23
to make a determination regarding whether to approve or 24
deny such application prior to the date which is 90 cal-25
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endar days after the date on which such application was 1
originally filed by such person, such application shall be 2
deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur-3
poses of this section and such firearm may be made by 4
such person. The Secretary shall only deny an application 5
to make and register a firearm on the grounds that the 6
applicable requirements under this section have not been 7
satisfied, and may not deny an application solely on the 8
grounds that a determination regarding whether to ap-9
prove or deny such application could not be completed by 10
the Secretary during the period described in the preceding 11
sentence.’’. 12
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 13
this section shall apply to applications which are filed or 14
pending on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 15
SEC. 4. REPORTS AND AGREEMENTS. 16
(a) U
NRESOLVEDNICS CHECKS.—Not later than 17
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 18
Comptroller General of the United States, in conjunction 19
with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, 20
shall submit a report to Congress— 21
(1) detailing the number of NICS inquiries re-22
ceived during the period of calendar years 2010 23
through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a fire-24
arm which remained unresolved following the expira-25
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tion of the 90-day period described in section 1
25.9(b)(1) of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations; 2
and 3
(2) providing recommendations for administra-4
tive actions to be adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, 5
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to minimize the 6
number of unresolved NICS inquiries described in 7
paragraph (1). 8
(b) A
DMINISTRATION OF NICS CHECKS.—Not later 9
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 10
the Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall 11
submit a report to Congress regarding the percentage of 12
NICS inquiries during the period of calendar years 2014 13
through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a firearm 14
which were administered by the Federal Bureau of Inves-15
tigation on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire-16
arms, and Explosives. 17
(c) M
EMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—Not later 18
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 19
the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 20
and Explosives and the Director of the Federal Bureau 21
of Investigation shall enter into a memorandum of under-22
standing regarding the administration and processing of 23
NICS inquiries with respect to the transfer of firearms. 24
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 25
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(1) FIREARM.—The term ‘‘firearm’’ has the 1
same meaning given such term under section 2
5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 3
(2) NICS.—The term ‘‘NICS’’ means the na-4
tional instant criminal background check system es-5
tablished under section 103 of the Brady Handgun 6
Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901). 7
Æ
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