WASHINGTON — With the nomination of David Chipman expected to be withdrawn, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will continue to operate without a Senate-confirmed director, as it has since 2015.
President Joe Biden’s decision to pull back Chipman’s nomination came as it was clear that he could not secure the 50 votes needed to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to break a tie and get Chipman through to confirmation.
A person familiar with the plan confirmed the Chipman withdrawal, which had not yet formally been received by the Senate. Only B. Todd Jones, who served as director under President Barack Obama, has ever won Senate confirmation to the post. The post has been subject to confirmation since 2006.
Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, were the widely reported holdouts within the Democratic caucus. Democrat Jon Tester of Montana had also been undecided. Chipman worked for 25 years as a special agent at ATF, but he has more recently served as a senior policy adviser at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, the advocacy group named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., which advocates for more stringent gun laws.
Gun safety advocates criticized the senators who were not in support of the president’s nominee.
“The people who are at fault for this moment are the at least 51 senators who refused to vote for or commit to vote for an exponentially qualified candidate. These Senators have let their constituents down,” Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence President Kris Brown said in a statement.
Senate Judiciary ranking member Charles E. Grassley cited questions about Chipman’s record in relation to personnel matters during his time at ATF, in addition to the more familiar GOP concerns about his advocacy of gun control.
“Mr. Chipman’s long record as a partisan, anti-Second Amendment activist raised plenty of concerns about how he’d administer federal firearms laws,” the Iowa Republican said in a statement. “But that wasn’t the only cause for concern.”
