Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he will discharge the nomination of Steven Dettelbach to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, a key post amid renewed debate over federal gun policy in the wake of a string of recent mass shootings.
“Later today, I will move to discharge the nomination of Mr. Dettelbach from the Judiciary Committee after his nomination resulted in a tie vote,” Schumer said in remarks on the Senate floor.
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Dettelbach’s nomination was deadlocked earlier in the Senate Judiciary Committee, 11-11.
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, praised Dettelbach in a meeting of the committee and said filling the position is long overdue, noting the agency has “only had one confirmed director since the position was made subject to Senate confirmation in 2006.”
“And it has not had a confirmed director since 2015,” Durbin said. “Seven years, no leadership … For stability, for responsiveness, for accountability, and for agency morale, this is long overdue.”
Dettelbach was previously a U.S. attorney in Ohio during the Obama administration. Even without any Republican votes, Senate Democrats could confirm him with Vice President Kamala Harris’s tiebreaking vote.
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President Joe Biden’s first nominee to lead the ATF withdrew when several centrist Senate Democrats opposed the pick.
