II 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 632 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require the Bureau of 

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to establish an administrative 

relief process for individuals whose applications for transfer and registration of a firearm were denied, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 2, 2023 

Mr. RISCH (for himself, Mr. SCOTT of Florida, Mr. CRAPO, Ms. LUMMIS, Mr. 

LANKFORD, and Mr. MARSHALL) introduced the following bill; which was 

read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to require 

the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives 

to establish an administrative relief process for individuals whose applications for transfer and registration of 

a firearm were denied, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘ATF Transparency 

5 Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF FOR DENIAL OF FIREARM 

2 TRANSFER APPLICATION. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 5812 of the Internal Rev4 enue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the end the 

5 following new subsection: 

6 ‘‘(c) ADMINISTRATIVE RELIEF.— 

7 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—With respect to any appli8 cation described in subsection (a) for the transfer 

9 and registration of a firearm which is denied by the 

10 Secretary based on a determination that transferring 

11 the firearm to the transferee would violate sub12 section (d) of section 922 of title 18, United States 

13 Code, or receipt of the firearm by the transferee 

14 would violate subsection (g) or (n) of that section or 

15 State, local, or tribal law, the Secretary shall— 

16 ‘‘(A) provide the transferee with the rel17 evant NICS transaction number with respect to 

18 such application, 

19 ‘‘(B) permit such transferee to appeal such 

20 denial to the Secretary in a manner similar to 

21 the process for appeals provided under section 

22 25.10 of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations, 

23 and 

24 ‘‘(C) permit such transferee to provide in25 formation to the Secretary to prevent any sub26 sequent erroneous denial or extended delay by 


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1 NICS pursuant to a program (as established by 

2 the Secretary) similar to the Voluntary Appeal 

3 File program described in section 25.10(g) of 

4 title 28, Code of Federal Regulations. 

5 ‘‘(2) ATTORNEY FEES.—In the case of any suc6 cessful appeal by the transferee pursuant to the 

7 process described in paragraph (1)(B), the Secretary 

8 shall reimburse the transferee for any reasonable 

9 and necessary attorney fees incurred with respect to 

10 such appeal. 

11 ‘‘(3) NICS.—For purposes of this subsection, 

12 the term ‘NICS’ means the national instant criminal 

13 background check system established under section 

14 103 of the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act 

15 (34 U.S.C. 40901).’’. 

16 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by 

17 this section shall apply to applications for the transfer and 

18 registration of a firearm which are filed or pending on or 

19 after the date of enactment of this Act. 

20 SEC. 3. TIMELY PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS. 

21 (a) TRANSFER OF FIREARMS.—Section 5812 of the 

22 Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended by section 

23 2, is amended by adding at the end the following new sub24 section: 


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1 ‘‘(d) PROCESSING OF APPLICATIONS.—Notwith2 standing subsection (a), if an application described in such 

3 subsection with respect to the transfer and registration of 

4 a firearm has been filed with the Secretary and the Sec5 retary fails to make a determination regarding whether 

6 to approve or deny such application prior to the date which 

7 is 90 calendar days after the date on which such applica8 tion was originally filed by the transferor, the transfer and 

9 registration of such firearm to the transferee shall be 

10 deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur11 poses of this section and such transfer may be made. The 

12 Secretary shall only deny an application described in sub13 section (a) on the grounds that the applicable require14 ments under such subsection have not been satisfied, and 

15 may not deny an application solely on the grounds that 

16 a determination regarding whether to approve or deny 

17 such application could not be completed by the Secretary 

18 during the period described in the preceding sentence.’’. 

19 (b) MAKING OF FIREARMS.—Section 5822 of the In20 ternal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by adding at the 

21 end the following: ‘‘Notwithstanding the preceding sen22 tences, if a person files an application to make and reg23 ister a firearm with the Secretary and the Secretary fails 

24 to make a determination regarding whether to approve or 

25 deny such application prior to the date which is 90 calVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:02 Mar 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632

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1 endar days after the date on which such application was 

2 originally filed by such person, such application shall be 

3 deemed to have been approved by the Secretary for pur4 poses of this section and such firearm may be made by 

5 such person. The Secretary shall only deny an application 

6 to make and register a firearm on the grounds that the 

7 applicable requirements under this section have not been 

8 satisfied, and may not deny an application solely on the 

9 grounds that a determination regarding whether to ap10 prove or deny such application could not be completed by 

11 the Secretary during the period described in the preceding 

12 sentence.’’. 

13 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

14 this section shall apply to applications which are filed or 

15 pending on or after the date of enactment of this Act. 

16 SEC. 4. REPORTS AND AGREEMENTS. 

17 (a) UNRESOLVED NICS CHECKS.—Not later than 

18 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the 

19 Comptroller General of the United States, in conjunction 

20 with the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, 

21 shall submit a report to Congress— 

22 (1) detailing the number of NICS inquiries re23 ceived during the period of calendar years 2010 

24 through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a fire25 arm which remained unresolved following the expiraVerDate Sep 11 2014 21:02 Mar 15, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S632.IS S632

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1 tion of the 90-day period described in section 

2 25.9(b)(1) of title 28, Code of Federal Regulations; 

3 and 

4 (2) providing recommendations for administra5 tive actions to be adopted by the Bureau of Alcohol, 

6 Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to minimize the 

7 number of unresolved NICS inquiries described in 

8 paragraph (1). 

9 (b) ADMINISTRATION OF NICS CHECKS.—Not later 

10 than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 

11 the Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall 

12 submit a report to Congress regarding the percentage of 

13 NICS inquiries during the period of calendar years 2014 

14 through 2021 with respect to the transfer of a firearm 

15 which were administered by the Federal Bureau of Inves16 tigation on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire17 arms and Explosives. 

18 (c) MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING.—Not later 

19 than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 

20 the Director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms 

21 and Explosives and the Director of the Federal Bureau 

22 of Investigation shall enter into a memorandum of under23 standing regarding the administration and processing of 

24 NICS inquiries with respect to the transfer of firearms. 

25 (d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 


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1 (1) FIREARM.—The term ‘‘firearm’’ has the 

2 same meaning given such term under section 

3 5845(a) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. 

4 (2) NICS.—The term ‘‘NICS’’ means the na5 tional instant criminal background check system es6 tablished under section 103 of the Brady Handgun 

7 Violence Prevention Act (34 U.S.C. 40901). 

Æ 


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