Anything that diminishes the tyrannical federal bureaucracy benefits the free American citizen.
According to a Friday news release from the office of Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, Ernst and Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have referred two bureaucrats from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to Attorney General Pam Bondi calling for “immediate corrective action” over a scheme the senators say cost taxpayers approximately $20 million.
As they outlined in a letter dated Friday, Ernst and Grassley accused the bureaucrats of taking part in an “illegal scheme to misclassify human resources (HR) and other administrative positions as law enforcement.”
In other words, ATF employees who did administrative work nonetheless allegedly had their positions classified as law enforcement, which entitled them to higher salaries and benefits.
Bureaucrats enriching themselves at public expense? And in this case, allegedly doing so illegally? Perish the thought.
Ernst and Grassley raised this concern on multiple occasions in 2024. Then-President Joe Biden’s administration, however, took no action.
Nonetheless, through whistleblowers, the senators obtained various internal reports, including one from ATF’s Internal Affairs Division.
“The IAD report was completed on January 5, 2024, and it highlights considerable evidence of gross waste, fraud, and abuse; substantial misconduct and mismanagement; abuse of power; and potential criminal misconduct committed by and under the supervision of then-ATF Office of Human Resources and Professional Development (HRPD) Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Lisa Boykin and HR Division Chief Ralph Bittelari,” the senators’ letter read.
Ernst and Grassley then outlined the alleged conduct by Boykin and Bittelari.
Should the ATF be eliminated?
They claimed, for instance, that Bittelari “fraudulently certified that a position description for the Chief of the ATF’s Workforce Wellness and Services Division (WWSD) located at ATF’s DC Headquarters was a law enforcement position.”
The senators also accused Boykin of a “troubling lack of candor regarding the installation of the Chief of WWSD.”
Meanwhile, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) suspended ATF’s classification authority. But this allegedly did not deter the two bureaucrats, according to the lawmakers’ letter.
“Deputy Assistant Director Boykin and Division Chief Bittelari disregarded OPM’s directives and relocated an ATF law enforcement officer from the Phoenix field office to an administrative position at ATF HQ that OPM identified as misclassified, further wasting taxpayer dollars,” the letter read.
All told, American taxpayers paid a heavy price for the alleged fraud.
“OPM estimated that ATF’s illegal scheme cost taxpayers around $20 million during the five-year period they reviewed, a number the whistleblowers say is substantially understated,” Ernst and Grassley wrote.
Whether or not Boykin and Bittelari face charges, this episode reminds us of two sobering facts.
First, the Second Amendment prohibits infringement on the right to bear arms. ATF, therefore, should not exist. Neither should most of the federal government.
Second, there is a reason why the suburbs of Washington, D.C., rank as the wealthiest counties in America, and there is a reason why they vote overwhelmingly Democrat. This scandal highlights those reasons.
In sum, if a salary scandal diminishes both the ATF and the federal bureaucracy at large, freedom-loving Americans win.
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