President Joe Biden praised the confirmation of new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives head Steve Dettelbach on Tuesday afternoon, calling it “an important, bipartisan step.”
The Senate voted to confirm Dettelbach to head the ATF after the agency went without a congressionally confirmed director for seven years. Forty-eight senators voted in Dettelbach’s favor and 46 against, with Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Rob Portman (R-OH) joining the Democrats in favor.
BIDEN CELEBRATES GUN CONTROL WIN THAT LEAVES DEMOCRATS WANTING
“As I’ve made clear time and time again, the answer to the rise in crime my administration inherited is not to defund law enforcement; it’s to provide law enforcement with the resources and support they need to succeed in working effectively with the communities they serve,” the president said in a prepared statement. “The Senate just took an important, bipartisan step by confirming Steve Dettelbach.”
This was the Biden administration’s second attempt at installing an ATF director after it withdrew another nominee, David Chipman, last fall.
Dettelbach has spent more than two decades working at the Department of Justice under four different presidential administrations, two from each major party. Biden called the vote, along with the recently passed Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, a win for bipartisanship.
“Today’s vote is another important sign that both parties can come together to support law enforcement and stand up against the horrific scourge of gun violence,” he said. “I thank the Senate for their support. And it is my hope that we can continue working together to keep Americans safe, especially our children, from mass shootings like those in Uvalde, Buffalo, and Highland Park, as well as the daily acts of gun violence that don’t make national headlines.”
The victory comes as time runs out for the Democrats to wrap up legislative business before the elections in November and the party seeks to work on gun violence after multiple mass shootings.
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Biden’s statement finished with a promise to push more gun control laws despite celebrating the implementation of a new gun control measure on Monday.
“We have so much more to do,” Biden said. “I will continue to call on Congress to build on this momentum and ban assault weapons, expand background checks, and pass safe storage laws.”
