The White House renewed its support behind the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' new rule on handgun stabilizing braces amid a push to reverse them.
On Monday, President Joe Biden's cabinet released a statement of policy threatening to veto the congressional attempt, which has been primarily forwarded by House Republican members of the Freedom Caucus.
"For decades, Federal law has placed stricter regulations on certain types of firearms, including short-barreled rifles," the White House statement read, arguing that the braces convert heavy pistols into short-barreled rifles.
However, the statement continued, Republicans are "pushing a resolution to reverse this rule and the progress we have made to enforce existing statutory requirements on these dangerous weapons," it added.
The statement comes after Attorney General Merrick Garland announced in January the ATF's move to reclassify pistols with stabilizing brace as short-barreled rifles, requiring their updated registry by May 31.
"This rule enhances public safety and prevents people from circumventing the laws Congress passed almost a century ago," ATF Director Steven Dettelbach said at the time.
More-conservative members of the House Republican Conference have now drafted plans to reverse the new classification. Just last week, Congressman Andrew Clyde of Georgia claimed it was central to the debt limit dispute.
According to Clyde, House Republican leadership threatened to table his measure reverting the ATF rules if he voted against the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, the agreement struck with Biden on raising the debt limit.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise has since denied Clyde's accusation and emphasized that he is working with the lawmaker and Republican Congressman Richard Hudson of North Carolina to bring it to the floor.
"The problem's been with the vote count. There are some members that aren't there yet, and we're working on getting those members there," Scalise told reporter, according to Fox News.
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