Kennedy Vows Effort to Remove Gun-Trace Provision From House Spending Bill

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	Kennedy Vows Effort to Remove Gun-Trace Provision From House Spending Bill CQ TODAY – APPROPRIATIONS: COMMERCE-JUSTICE-SCIENCE June 12, 2007 Kennedy Vows Effort to Remove Gun-Trace Provision From House Spending Bill By Keith Perine, CQ Staff House Democratic appropriators have included language in their draft fiscal 2008 Commerce-Justice-Science spending measure that would bar the Justice Department from sharing gun-trace data with cities, according to a Democrat on the relevant Appropriations subcommittee. Patrick J. Kennedy, a Democrat representing Rhode Island, said he would offer an amendment during a June 18 House Appropriations Committee markup of the fiscal 2008 spending measure to remove the provision. But Kennedy declined to predict whether he had the votes in either the committee or the full House to delete it. The provision has been in the legislation every year since it was first offered as an amendment in committee by Todd Tiahrt, R-Kan., in 2003. As written in earlier legislation, the language would bar the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) from sharing federal gun-trace data with local law enforcement, except under limited circumstances. House subcommittee Chairman Alan B. Mollohan, a Democrat from West Virginia, voted for such language when Republicans controlled the House, as did Appropriations Chairman David R. Obey, a Democrat from Wisconsin. Mollohan's panel approved the draft House bill June 11 by voice vote. Mollohan's decision to write the gun-trace language into the fiscal 2008 measure puts him at odds with the chairwoman of the Senate Commerce-Justice-Science Appropriations Subcommittee, Barbara A. Mikulski, D-Md., who announced June 7 that she would not put it in her version. Tiahrt said Tuesday that he expects a "great deal of support on the Senate side outside of the subcommittee chairman." "The NRA has mislabeled this as a gun rights vote," said Kennedy, the second-ranking Democrat on Mollohan's subcommittee. He said it was possible for lawmakers to draft language that "narrowly targets" the sharing of gun-trace data - presumably so it could not be used in lawsuits against the gun industry, which is a goal of the National Rifle Association. A raft of national and state law enforcement organizations, along with dozens of local police chiefs, sent a letter to lawmakers Tuesday opposing the provision. Law enforcement officials are able to get ATF gun-trace data for use in a particular investigation in a particular jurisdiction, but they say that limits their effectiveness in fighting crimes involving guns. Mollohan praised the provision but did not predict an outcome in the full committee markup. He said the language will be "an issue that will need to be conferenced if Tiahrt ends up in our bill."

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