Fun Fact: Senate has NOT confirmed an ATF Director in SEVEN YEARS…thanks to Mitch “grim reaper” McConnell

Senate REPUBLICANs: you failed to confirm both Obama and Trump’s nominees and now President Biden’s ATF nominee. You talk about negotiating commonsense gun safety but you’ve yet to

So yesterday, I can admit that I went on a verbal tirade because I’m sick of the NRA-Funded Senate Republicans’ talk about “something needs to change” to address the ongoing Gun violence in America. It’s a no brainer and I really wish cable news outlets would report this little fact. How can the one Federal Agency: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives assist lawmakers with commonsense gun safety reform when the NRA-Funded Senate Republicans are playing games —meanwhile everyday dozens of Americans lose their lives to gun violence —that’s not an opinion those are facts/

Here’s a really novel thought —hear me out — according to our Constitution, the Senate is vested with authority and power vis-a-vis “by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate” -PAS is an acronym for Presidentially Apponted, Senate Confirmed. Pursuant to Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution governs the nomination and appointment of various PAS positions:

“[The President,] ¹ by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law . . . .”

PAS confirmation process & Senate Rules

The process of a PAS position is rather simple and I’ve pulled directly from the Senate Rules and/or Senate Committee

• The President of the United States makes a nomination, formally known as the Presidential Submission.

The nomination is read on the floor and the executive clerk assigns it a number. A nomination is not voted on by the full Senate on the same day the Senate receives it, or on the day on which it is reported by a committee, except by unanimous consent

• Said Nominee’s papers are then referred to the appropriate Senate Committee (ATF Director is under the Senate Judiciary Committee)

…committees have rules governing how soon after hearings the committee may vote on a nomination. The committee has the option to report the nomination favorably, unfavorably, or without recommendation, or to take no action at all. If the committee votes to report the nomination, it is then filed with the legislative clerk, who notifies the executive clerk. Committees usually do not submit written reports to accompany nominations.

• Senate Floor Consideration (speeches and possibly another victim of the stupid filibuster nonsense)

…may not begin floor consideration of a nomination until it has been on the Executive Calendar for at least one day, except by unanimous consent. Nominations are subject to unlimited debate, subject to cloture being invoked (which requires 60 votes). In some instances, one or more Senators may place a “hold” on a nomination, thereby delaying or preventing it from reaching the floor for further action. Under Senate Rule XXXI, the final question on a nomination is, “Will the Senate advise and consent to this nomination?”

The Senate has three options: confirm, reject, or take no action on the nomination. Confirmation requires a simple majority vote.

And that last step is once a nominee has been discharged out of committee favorably (unfavorably the nomination is DOA) it goes to the Senate Floor, and ultimately to a vote. If the nominee is confirmed by the Senate, then the Senate Parliamentarian transmits the confirmation to the White House, shortly thereafter the Nominee has a swearing in ceremony. But again in the case of the ATF -it has been over seven years since a Senate Confirmed ATF Director. Again these are the ugly and pesky facts and I really wish more Americans understood how this process works and if you really want to do “something” good news is you CAN -by calling your Senators

— Senate Rule XXXI regulates proceedings on nominations in executive sessions Senate committee may/can adopt its “own procedures as long as they do not conflict with Senate rules” —

ATF Director…”acting” has an expiration date see FVRA (Federal Vacancy Reform Act)

The Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA) of 1998, P.L. 105-277

—if you thought I pulled the seven years out of the sky, well I regret to inform you; that’s not an arbitrary number, some of us actually know Washington DC (because some of us actually work and live here), the various Rules and Procedures. Yet more importantly how “scandals” can all but stop a PAS nomination dead in its tracks. Here’s a query I ran for the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding ATF (1999 to present)

• under President Obama his ATF Director Nominee had the misfortune of dealing with “Fast and Furious” ← I offer no opinion on that scandal beyond Senate Republicans used that as a weapon to impugn a well qualified nominee and then the Senate Republicans dragged out the ATF nomination process out for months.

• As it relates to president (and no I am never going to use a capital “P” because my meta is petty AF) Trump’s ATF nominee: Charles Canterbury PN835 -setting aside the fact that at the end of Trump’s disastrous first term, he left hundreds of PAS positions open sans nomination —Trump was notorious for (abusing) the “Acting” role and FVRA be damned.

  • May 24, 2019 -Appointment announced

    June 5, 2019 -Referred to Judiciary committee

    July 31, 2019 -Hearing held

    Jan. 3, 2020 -Returned to president

    Feb. 12, 2020 -Appointment announced

    Feb. 12, 2020 -Referred to Judiciary committee

    May 19, 2020 -Withdrawn by president

• With respect to President Biden — his first ATF Director Nomination occurred on March 12, 2021, when David Chapman PN274 was formally Nominated:

  • April 7, 2021 -Appointment announced David Chipman

    April 12, 2021 -Referred to Judiciary committee

    May 26, 2021 -Hearing held

    Sept. 13, 2021 -Withdrawn by president

• President Biden’s —second ATF Director Steve Dettelbach (see Congress.gov PN1975 link)

  • April 11, 2022 Appointment announced Steve Dettelbach

    April 25, 2022 Referred to Judiciary committee (this link will take you to the nomination packet, letters, comments, Q&As)

    May 25, 2022 Hearing held -yes the day after the Uvalde mass murders and a week after the Buffalo NY mass murders

Ahead of the votes, U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, spoke on the devastating mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and urged his colleagues to support common sense gun safety legislation to prevent such appalling acts of mass murder in the future.  He also highlighted yesterday’s Judiciary Committee hearing on the nomination of Steven M. Dettelbach to be Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). See press release

Also see Steven M Dettelbach SJQ -it’s a 73 page document of written questions and Dettelbach’s thoughtful and thorough responses —if you’re so inclined run a word search using: Dettelbach via this Senate Judiciary Committee May 25th Hearing link and you can read the 53+ other documents related to this nomination

To be clear, yes I’m saying Senate Republicans with ample help from Ultra Conservative “news” Organizations and the Gun Lobby launched a full scale smear campaign where they unfairly portrayed Biden’s first ATF nominee as a “gun grabber” and the Senate Grim Reaper, Mitch McConnell largely spear headed the torpedoing of Biden’s first ATF nominee. Again how do we expect the current ATF director (who’s only there in an “acting” capacity) to promulgate new rules? You do understand that “acting” directors are limited in new rule making and in some cases actually do not have the statutory authority —Do I really need to remind you about Trump’s disastrous “acting” sycophants and how district courts after district courts ruled that -cough- Chad Wolfe, Kevin McAleenan had exceeded their authority?

So what’s the point of this article?

The Senate needs to do their goddamn job…

Generally speaking the Senate needs to stop playing politics with presidential nominations and give the nominees a fair chance. Irrespective of what party controls the White House or Senate. You’ll note that previous statement doesn’t ascribed politics because both parties have weaponized the use of stalling, smearing, and withdrawing as a weapon to push back on the White House at the sufferance and sacrifice of many Americans. See occasionally I can be a-political

Senate GOP on AR-15s…

The sheer insanity that this Senator believes that AR-15-like weapons are good to shoot prairie dogs and other vermin is absolutely bat-shit crazy. Here’s a challenge how about these NRA FUNDED-Republican Senators travel to Uvalde —view the autopsy photos of the 19 children and 2 teachers —the medical examiner needed several DNA samples because these 9 and 10 year children’s bodies were so mangled by the .223 caliber ammunition that the M.E. couldn’t visually identify these kids. —meet with the 21 families and hear their grief —I mean Uvalde is a short drive to the GOP Senators favorite place —our Southern Boarder. But they won’t because these GOP Senators are feckless chickenshit cowards and that’s why they haven’t gone down to Uvalde.

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And your daily saltwater therapy —fun fact Nina Simone is one of my favorite musical artist of all time. When ever I’m editing a massive filing I play her songs but this one song was my former bosses favorite and I’m not usually an EDM cover type of music lover

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Be Well -your Spicy File —who decided today I ran out of Fs… snort

1. Fun Fact you know what [__] means in our constitution, right? It means there’s either a spelling, grammatical or words left out. Gasps yet some think criticism of my spelling errors makes them smart. It doesn’t. It only make you confirm the intellectual midgets that I think you are. (snort)