President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives underscored the agency’s law enforcement mission but criticized the latest Republican-led spending cut to the agency in written responses to lawmakers.
The responses to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee offer new insight into how veteran ATF official Robert Cekada would lead the agency charged with upholding the nation’s gun laws, a bureau often ensnared in high-profile debates over Second Amendment protections and the role of the federal government in addressing American gun violence.
His nomination is listed on the agenda for a Thursday Senate Judiciary meeting, but his nomination is expected to be held over per a regular committee procedure.
