President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives underscored the agency’s law enforcement mission but criticized the latest Republican-led spending cut to the agency in written responses to lawmakers. The responses to members of the Senate Judiciary Committee offer new insight into how veteran ATF official Robert Cekada would lead the agency charged with upholding the nation’s gun laws, a bureau often ensnared in high-profile debates over Second Amendment protections and the role of the federal government in addressing American gun violence. His nomination is listed on the agenda for a Thursday Senate Judiciary meeting, but his nomination is expected to be held over per a regular committee procedure. Cekada, in his written responses, pledged to target violent crime and focus on repeat violent offenders, serial shooters and gang members. He would make sure the agency “minimizes” any burdens the agency puts on citizens who are “lawfully exercising their Second Amendment rights,” he wrote. And if confirmed as the agency head, Cekada wrote that he would continue to work with Attorney General Pamela Bondi to review agency regulations and see if they are compatible with the Second Amendment, “in accordance” with a Trump executive order aimed at protecting Second Amendment rights. But Cekada also showed no support for the latest Republican-led cut to ATF’s budget, as outlined in the fiscal 2026 Justice Department spending bill passed by Congress earlier this year. The ATF saw a $40 million decrease, or a 2.5 percent cut, to its funding, a cut that Cekada said would continue a “compounded reduction in operational funding.” “These consecutive cuts compound across years, eroding core enforcement operations and markedly constraining ATF’s ability to support state and local law-enforcement partners,” Cekada wrote. “If confirmed, I look forward to working with Congress to adequately address the resources needed by ATF,” he added. Cekada also showed no enthusiasm for a past funding figure that House Republican appropriators proposed during the fiscal 2025 budget cycle that would have reduced the agency’s budget by 11.6 percent. Cekada wrote he was “grateful” for the 2.5 percent cut for fiscal 2026 compared to the fiscal 2025 proposal from House Republican appropriators. That response did not address that House GOP appropriators proposed going even farther during the fiscal 2026 budget cycle, recommending a 26 percent slash to the agency’s budget, which did not come to pass. In recent years, Republicans have wielded their power on Capitol Hill to shrink funding for the ATF, an entity GOP lawmakers have repeatedly attacked for its work enforcing gun regulations. For fiscal 2024, Republicans were able to secure a nearly 7 percent cut to ATF funding. Cekada has been viewed as a more traditional pick for the director position, as a veteran ATF official with a decades-long career in law enforcement that began as a police cadet with the New York City Police Department in the early 1990s. The Astoria-born official started at the ATF in 2005, and rose up through the agency over the years, eventually being elevated to deputy director last year. His nomination to the top post has drawn support from national law enforcement organizations and other outside groups, including the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for the firearms industry. His nomination is another sign the Trump administration has appeared to back off a past proposal to eliminate the ATF and merge its functions into the Drug Enforcement Administration. Groups on both sides of the gun debate found rare agreement in opposing the plan, though for different reasons, and the final fiscal 2026 Justice Department spending bill rejected the idea by funding the ATF and DEA separately.
