Blumenthal Urges Senate to Confirm ATF Director Nominee Following Texas Elementary School Shooting

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – After nineteen children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) urged his colleagues to swiftly confirm Steve Dettelbach, President Biden’s nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), during the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination today.

“The best laws on the books are dead letter if they are not enforced effectively, and it will be your job to make sure that the premier federal agency responsible for gun violence has the mandate and the independence to pursue it diligently, fearlessly, and ferociously,” Blumenthal said to Dettelbach. “You come here at a moment of extraordinary anguish, anxiety, and anger in this country. And I believe that we must move forward with gun violence prevention reforms that will make our laws more effective and give you more tools that you need in saving communities and individual lives.”

As Director, Dettelbach would lead the ATF in their mission to protect the public from crimes involving firearms, explosives, arson, and the diversion of alcohol and tobacco products. The agency also works in the regulation of lawful commerce in firearms and explosives, and supporting law enforcement, public safety, and industry partners.

Blumenthal called on Congress to provide law enforcement agencies like ATF with tools and resources to prevent gun violence, such as red flag statutes, background checks, safe storage requirements, and ghost gun bans.

“When it comes to tackling these kinds of problems, we need an agency that is not only independent, but will be perceived as independent beyond the influence and grip of the gun lobby which all too often has been perceived as having undue impact on the ATF. And that perception itself can undermine an agency’s effectiveness,” said Blumenthal. “So as much as I feel that you will bring new leadership, I think it is important that we move forward to give you that opportunity as quickly as possible, particularly seizing this moment of extraordinary challenge to make sure you have a mandate from the United States Congress to do your job.”

Dettelbach is a former U.S. Attorney who served the Northern District of Ohio from 2009 to 2017. During his tenure, Dettelbach’s office led major efforts to combat violent extremism and religious-motivated violence, which earned him the praise of a wide range of both Democratic and Republican officials. Dettelbach’s two decades as a prosecutor have also earned him the support of law enforcement groups, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP); Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA); Major County Sheriffs of America (MCSA); National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE); Women in Federal Law Enforcement (WIFLE); and Hispanic American Police Command Officers Association (HAPCOA). In his response to Blumenthal, Dettelbach emphasized the importance of the agency which has operated without a Senate-confirmed Director since 2015.

“Politics will play no role in law enforcement. None at all,” said Dettelbach. “People need to have confidence that people in law enforcement’s only agenda is to enforce the law, and if you’re at the ATF, to catch the bad guys and protect the public. I would like to think that my record doing that is one of the reasons why I have support of over one hundred-forty senior Justice Department officials.” 

Video of Blumenthal’s remarks is available here. The full text of Blumenthal’s opening remarks is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal: Mr. Dettelbach, I want to join you in thanking the extraordinary professionals of ATF, the agency that you’ve been nominated to lead. Having been a federal prosecutor, the United States Attorney in Connecticut for four and a half years, I’ve worked with this agency and I’ve followed their work over the years and there’s no more dedicated and brave group of professionals and what we’ve seen over the last twenty-four hours again, we’ve seen it repeatedly over these years is the devotion of local law enforcement and state police to stopping gun violence and rescuing the victims and survivors of gun violence in this country. President Biden has made it clear that his administration is committed to combating the surge in violence crime in communities across the United States, but as we know, violence crime cannot be stopped without also stopping gun violence. Firearms make violent crime all the more violent and all the more likely to be deadly. The best laws on the books are dead letter if they are not enforced effectively and it will be your job to make sure that the premier federal agency responsible for gun violence has the mandate and the independence to pursue it diligently, fearlessly, and ferociously. You come here at a moment of extraordinary anguish, anxiety, and anger in this country. And I believe that we must move forward with gun violence prevention reforms that will make our laws more effective and give you more tools that you need in saving communities and individual lives. I believe in the Second Amendment, it’s the law of the land. There are measures we can take that are consistent with the Second Amendment that will separate people from firearms if they are dangerous to themselves or others. Red flag statutes, background checks, safe storage like Ethan’s Law, ghost gun bans, and others. When it comes to tackling these kinds of problems, we need an agency that is not only independent but will be perceived as independent beyond the influence and grip of the gun lobby which all too often has been perceived as having undue impact on the ATF and that perception itself can undermine an agency’s effectiveness. So as much as I feel that you will bring new leadership, I think it is important that we move forward to give you that opportunity as quickly as possible, particularly seizing this moment of extraordinary challenge to make sure you have a mandate from the United States Congress to do your job. Let me ask you how you will draw on your background as a prosecutor to make sure that you’re effective in this job?

Steve Dettelbach: Senator, I have spent the vast majority of my career as a prosecutor, over twenty years. I have worked, and it is a core value of mine, something that I have lived with and the politics will play no role in law enforcement. None at all. I worked under Republican administrations and I worked under Democratic administrations as a federal prosecutor and I have lived that credo and I vow to continue to do it because people need to have confidence that people in law enforcement’s only agenda is to enforce the law, and if you’re at the ATF, to catch the bad guys and protect the public. I would like to think that my record doing that is one of the reasons why I have support of over one hundred-forty senior Justice Department officials and a bipartisan support, support from Deputy Attorney General for Donald Trump and the Deputy Attorney General for President Bush as well as the Deputy Attorney General for President Obama, from Assistant Attorney Generals on both sides of the aisle and from U.S. Attorneys in my state who are both appointed by President Trump and other states. And I vow to never let politics in any way influence my actions as ATF Director.

Blumenthal: You have a record of combatting, in fact a track record of combatting extremism, in particularly religion motivated violence while U.S. Attorney you were praised by both Republicans and Democrats for combatting that kind of violent extremism. We know that a number of gun violence incidents, some of the most deadly most recently in Buffalo, but also Oak Creek, Charleston, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh, El Paso were motivated by this kind of white supremacy anti-religion particular religious faith kind of violence. How will that experience by you in dealing with such incidents be part of your motivation here?

Dettelbach: Senator, I have seen in my, starting thirty years ago, I have seen both the incidents and the audacity of anti-religious violence grow over time. It was there when I started but things have seemed to unfortunately go in the wrong direction. And I will say this as someone who is a prosecutor and someone who is raising Jewish children as a religious minority in this country, I spent time in Pittsburgh, I talked to people at Tree of Life, the largest mosque in my state was torched, an African American church was torched. We caught a fellow in Toledo who had stock piled, this was a convicted killer, somebody who had shot three people, killed one, had a felony record for that, and we found him in Toledo with eighteen weapons, forty thousand rounds of ammunition, a Kevlar vest, and surveillance evidence that he was scouting out and following the head of the Jewish Community Federation in Detroit and the head of the NAACP in Detroit. Thankfully, the Joint Terrorism Task Force caught that person. Senator, this is part of who I am and it is a core American value to be able to have religious freedom and to worship without fear of violence. We have to make sure we protect that.

Blumenthal: Thank you Mr. Dettelbach.  

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