President Barack Obama detailed his plan to work around lawmakers to implement tougher gun control measures, but the Republican-held Congress holds the keys for funding the administration’s changes.
Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, chairman of the appropriations subcommittee in charge of financing the Justice Department, threatened to defund the agency should the White House move forward with its unilateral gun actions described Tuesday by Obama.
“I will not sit by and permit our Second Amendment rights to be diminished or damaged in any way when I have the duty as chairman of this subcommittee to ensure that our hard-earned tax dollars are spent in strict accordance with the Constitution and federal law, period,” Culberson told The Daily Signal.
He pledged to use every tool at his disposal to ensure the Justice Department acts within its boundaries and does not overstep existing federal law.
Culberson sent a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch on Monday vowing to withhold taxpayer dollars from the Justice Department if the administration implements “unlawful limitations” on the Second Amendment.
While none of his colleagues has publicly backed the plan, Culberson said he was confident he could convince GOP members to sign on after the House Republican whip team reconvened Tuesday night.
“This administration has overreached more often than any other administration in my memory and the only tool that seems to deter them is the power of the purse,” he said.
A teary-eyed Obama detailed a string of executive actions intended to curb gun violence in the president’s first gun control push of the New Year.
One key proposal mandates more firearms dealers to obtain a federal license, requiring those sellers to conduct background checks on customers purchasing weapons. The change is aimed at dealers currently exempt from federal licensing rules, including those who sell at gun shows or online.
The president also directed the FBI to hire more than 230 additional personnel to process background checks and he said he will request funding from Congress to add 200 agents to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for tougher enforcement of gun laws.
Obama also will seek $500 million for mental health treatment and said the administration will strengthen requirements for reporting lost and stolen guns.
“The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage,” Obama said, noting roughly 30,000 people die by gunfire each year.
“We do not have to accept this carnage as the price of freedom,” he said, to a standing ovation at the White House event.
Although the president’s proposals would skirt the typical legislative process, his plans largely depend on congressional budget approval.
Members of the House Appropriations Committee demanded that Lynch enforce federal guns laws already in place rather than “create new law” through executive actions.
Rep. Diane Black, R-Tenn., called Obama’s new proposals a “cheap stunt by a lawless president,” citing a Washington Post piece that conceded new gun laws would not have prevented the mass shootings last year.
“We must use every tool at our disposal, including the power of the purse and, if necessary, the pursuit of legal action, to put a check on this unconstitutional overreach,” Black said in a statement Tuesday.
Congressional Democrats overwhelmingly backed the administration’s gun control plan, rallying against their Republican counterparts for planning to block the president’s actions.
“I’m sure that my Republican colleagues in the House and the Senate will try to block his executive action. They will not succeed,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told MSNBC on Monday. “They won’t get the votes in the Senate, and even if they did the president would veto it.”
Obama was to continue his appeal to Americans for tougher gun measures during a “town hall” Thursday night hosted by CNN at George Mason University.
