II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 884
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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH6, 2025
Mr. R
ISCH(for himself, Mr. DAINES, Mr. LANKFORD, Mr. CRAPO, Mrs.
H
YDE-SMITH, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. SHEEHY, and Mr. MARSHALL) intro-
duced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Com-
mittee on the Judiciary
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
‘‘(d) P
ROCESSING OFAPPLICATIONS.— 25
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•S 884 IS
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding subsection 1
(a), if an application described in such subsection 2
with respect to the transfer and registration of a 3
firearm has been filed with the Secretary and the 4
Secretary fails to make a determination regarding 5
whether to approve or deny such application prior to 6
the date which is 3 business days after the date on 7
which such application was originally filed by the 8
transferor, the transfer and registration of such fire-9
arm to the transferee shall be deemed to have been 10
approved by the Secretary for purposes of this sec-11
tion and such transfer may be made. The Secretary 12
shall only deny an application described in sub-13
section (a) on the grounds that the applicable re-14
quirements under such subsection have not been sat-15
isfied, and may not deny an application solely on the 16
grounds that a determination regarding whether to 17
approve or deny such application could not be com-18
pleted by the Secretary during the period described 19
in the preceding sentence. 20
‘‘(2) S
AFE HARBOR.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—In the case of an ap-22
plication described in subsection (a) which, fol-23
lowing the expiration of the 3-day period under 24
paragraph (1), has been deemed to have been 25
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•S 884 IS
approved by the Secretary for purposes of this 1
section and for which the transfer of the fire-2
arm has been made, if the Secretary subse-3
quently determines that the applicable require-4
ments under such subsection have not been sat-5
isfied and that such application should have 6
been denied, the Secretary shall provide actual 7
notice of such determination to the transferor 8
and transferee of such firearm. 9
‘‘(B) C
RIMINAL LIABILITY.—In the case of 10
a determination described in subparagraph (A) 11
that an application for transfer and registration 12
of a firearm should have been denied— 13
‘‘(i) the transferor may not be held 14
liable for any violation of subsection (d) of 15
section 922 of title 18, United States 16
Code, and 17
‘‘(ii) the transferee may not be held 18
liable for any violation of subsection (g) or 19
(n) of section 922 of title 18, United 20
States Code, provided that the transferee 21
returns the firearm to the Secretary within 22
the 14-day period subsequent to the date 23
on which the transferee received notice 24
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•S 884 IS
from the Secretary regarding such deter-1
mination.’’. 2
(b) M
AKING OFFIREARMS.—Section 5822 of the In-3
ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 4
end the following: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding sen-5
tences, if a person files an application to make and reg-6
ister a firearm with the Secretary and the Secretary fails 7
to make a determination regarding whether to approve or 8
deny such application prior to the date which is 3 business 9
days after the date on which such application was origi-10
nally filed by such person, such application shall be 11
deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur-12
poses of this section and such firearm may be made by 13
such person. The Secretary shall only deny an application 14
to make and register a firearm on the grounds that the 15
applicable requirements under this section have not been 16
satisfied, and may not deny an application solely on the 17
grounds that a determination regarding whether to ap-18
prove or deny such application could not be completed by 19
the Secretary during the period described in the preceding 20
sentence.’’. 21
(c) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 22
this section shall apply to applications which are filed or 23
pending on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 24
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SEC. 4. REPORTS AND AGREEMENTS. 1
(a) U
NRESOLVEDNICS CHECKS.—Not later than 2
180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 3
Comptroller General of the United States, in conjunction 4
with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, 5
shall submit a report to Congress— 6
(1) detailing the number of NICS inquiries re-7
ceived during the period of calendar years 2010 8
through 2024 with respect to the transfer of a fire-9
arm which remained unresolved following the expira-10
tion of the 90-day period described in section 11
25.9(b)(1) of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations; 12
and 13
(2) providing recommendations for administra-14
tive actions to be adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, 15
Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to minimize the 16
number of unresolved NICS inquiries described in 17
paragraph (1). 18
(b) A
DMINISTRATION OF NICS CHECKS.—Not later 19
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 20
the Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall 21
submit a report to Congress regarding the percentage of 22
NICS inquiries during the period of calendar years 2014 23
through 2024 with respect to the transfer of a firearm 24
which were administered by the Federal Bureau of Inves-25
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tigation on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire-1
arms, and Explosives. 2
(c) M
EMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—Not later 3
than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 4
the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, 5
and Explosives and the Director of the Federal Bureau 6
of Investigation shall enter into a memorandum of under-7
standing regarding the administration and processing of 8
NICS inquiries with respect to the transfer of firearms. 9
(d) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section— 10
(1) F
IREARM.—The term ‘‘firearm’’ has the 11
same meaning given such term under section 12
5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 13
(2) NICS.—The term ‘‘NICS’’ means the na-14
tional instant criminal background check system es-15
tablished under section 103 of the Brady Handgun 16
Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901). 17
Æ
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