Over 350 baltimorians were killed last year. 350 dead. Some of whom were little children who were killed as innocent bystanders where theres a question about the revenge killings. This was criminal work. The growing nexus of drugs, crime, guns, violence, murder. My question to you, when i look at the 350 deaths, what can we do in just plain english to keep the guns out of the hands of the criminals . I know we were talking about Second Amendment rights and maryland is a state with enormous numbers of hunters. The gun tradition in Baltimore City shouldnt be that the drug three there is not the one who gets the guns. How can we in either the president s proposals or in current law really have an aggressive effort on this issue of guns and criminals . Thank you, madame vice chairwoman. One of the most important things we can do is make sure the atf is fully resourced. Our request for 200 additional agents and investigators for fiscal year 2017 is something that will be coming before the subcommittee for the 2017 budget. We intend in the spend plan send up information about the beginning of that process, even this fiscal year. The Law Enforcement priorities of atf at this point consistent with the smart on crime plan are to focus on the Violent Crime issue that you have just described, to focus on individuals who terrorize neighborhoods and harm children , who essentially through the Unlawful Possession of firearms create a danger to law abiding americans seeking to live their lives in our vibrant cities. We are targeting not just the gun traffickers, but as my atf director calls it, the trigger pullers. Gang violence. We are looking at ways to target our resources to focus on those individuals who are causing the most harm to our communities. Do you feel this is also due, this rising gun violence, is related to the heroin epidemic. What is happening in my city which is just awful with this over 350 dead, let alone injured god forbid, is not just like the baltimore this seems like an epidemic that is it our big urban areas. Ms. Lynch i believe the phrase epidemic accurately captures the problem of the increase in heroin and opioid abuse were seeing. This is a problem in many urban areas but i must say it has sadly spread across this country. There are many counties with various densities, even rural areas that are in the grips of an opioid and heroin epidemic. And with that often comes an increase in violence. There our enforcement activities are focused on pairing atf agents with dea and fbi agents to target those criminal organizations that are bringing narcotics in and are protecting the drug trade with their firearms. Well, thank you very much. My time is up. Senator baldwin and i just went left a hearing chaired by senator alexander and senator patty murray. An excellent panel. Very excellent witnesses. But in a minute were going to talk about this issue of people , people mentally ill getting drugs. This issue of privacy rights. How do you stop . The Virginia Tech situation comes to mind. We can go through other cases but in Virginia Tech that young man had been in and out of institutions. Who knew . You can help . When do we intervene . And their ability to get these guns. We had a shooting at a columbia mall. We all have shootings. That is what is terrible. We all have shootings. I look forward to hearing your comments on the Mental Illness aspect. But it know we have excellent other senators. We will get to their questions. I want to hear your questions and answers. Thank you very much. Senator langford. Good morning to you and thank you for being a part of this. Let me bounce a couple of questions off of you that are timely. I served previously in the house of representatives, we would processgh the subpoena and ask your predecessor for additional documents for the fast and furious investigation on guns. Those were delayed to us. Privilege was announced on that as of yesterday. A court has told the Attorney Generals Office this document the to be turned over by february 2. I need clarification. Will all those documents now be released to the oversight and Government Reform Committee by february 2 as for the judges order . Ms. Lynch thank you for the question. We did receive the ruling yesterday in reviewing the ruling. Im aware the provision everyone and of course we want to study it carefully and determine what appropriate steps to take and the timeliness of them. I can assure you we will be either responding to the committee or to the court at the appropriate time. You are not saying yes or no whether those documents will be turned over in time . Clearly they have been collected. Ms. Lynch we will pursue any legal action, we have not made that decision. And since were not, im not able to give you information at this time. Do you know what the answer will come back . Ms. Lynch we will let you know within the time you mentioned. One of the conversations i had with your processor was on process issues that your the. Th the atf and those can be combined to make sure we have clear processes across doj. Is there any kind of progress made of late with atf in trying to align with some of the fbi processes for how they do investigations . Ms. Lynch i would need to know a bit more the context of the processes you referred to. Whether you are referring to deconfliction or joint efforts to provide. We will try to follow up on that because that was an ongoing conversation he and i agree on. There was a process moving on that. Let me ask about some of the guidances as you have mentioned several times for the federal firearms licenses. The guidance has come out seems to be the same as it was before. Basically saying if you are in the business of dealing firearms, then you have to be licensed. That is nothing new. What is the new definition . The previous definition for that seemed to change during the Clinton Administration to have a lower number, people that are Kitchen Table dealers, selling to neighbors are occasionally selling out of their collection. They are not a licensed dealer. We are trying to get a clarification as when with that clarification come out a what you are proposing and will of the a regulatory change or guidance document . Ms. Lynch the guidance document answers a question you have raised. It collects information from all the cases it has considered this issue and provides through a series of clear examples by a definition for when someone is engaged in the business and when they are not. You are correct in the sense that the definition has not changed. The statute has not changed. We are simply gathering the case law, the legal definitions that have been promulgated by courts to situations where people have been found to be engaged in the business. And also where they have clarified the definition of the hobbyist and the collector. Those exceptions are also part of the law. Hobbyists and collectors are not required to obtain a license. Its important to note that this information has been scattered in a number of cases throughout the country. As i mentioned before, atf was constantly and still anticipates receiving inquiries of from individuals seeking to comply with the law, asking if their activities constitute being engaged in the business of dealing. What would be the clear role . How many firearms decelerate that you sell in a year . Is it over a lifetime . The number of in the collection . Based on the amount income you receive . What will be the clear guidance . Ms. Lynch the court determined a number of factors are used. It specifically says there is not a specific number that makes one pass the test. It is the totality of circumstances. Essentially if one is repetitively selling firearms, if you held hold yourself out as a dealer if in fact you do , intend to make a profit, all these things go into that calculation. The courts given different weight. But the steady does not that is what we are trying to get. Theres a difference between guidance and regulation. We are trying to find out if there will be a rule promulgated in this. I will walk back through some of the tests. One final question i find very important. The gathering of information going into the background checks. The interstate identification index, is that information used in a criminal background check information as well, or only what is Going International criminal background checks which connects searches . Ms. Lynch i would have to get clarification on that for you. This particular recommendation that we have made to the president focuses on strengthening the nix system. Which is part of my concern. This is been an issue. I dont find anyone here that says we should not do background checks. And that that database should not be very effective. But if i could have just a pleasure of the chairman for a moment, let me run through a couple of our states. In the states that submit information into the system. Federally, it is a federal conviction for a felony, that goes in right away. But if its a state felony, as i look to the listing here, alabama currently has zero felonies. You will be glad to know that running into the system. California has 4032. Delaware has zero. Maryland has 12. My fine state of oklahoma has one, a very lawabiding state clearly. Rhode island has zero. And wisconsin has 106. That is not very many coming from our states into the system. The question i would haves and have is and i think there has been common agreement on, what is happening between the states that they are not submitting the information into the federal system . Or has the federal system so complicated to get information into that our states of all stripes are not sitting submitting that information . Ms. Lynch i think you raise a very important issue. After the Virginia Tech tragedy the federal government did reach out to the states and request a greater influx of information into the system. Federal agencies are required to record information into the system. States do it on a voluntary basis. In fact, in the year since the Virginia Tech shooting, the amount of information coming from all of those states is increased by proximally 70 . In Mental Health but not felonies. Ms. Lynch 70 across a number of categories. Recently ido quite , sent a letter to the governors of every state asking them to look at their systems and processes and make sure they were in fact setting of the most efficient systems to provide information to us. The department of justice through its grants program does provide support for states who need assistance in categorizing the types of offenses that he be that need to be provided. And making their own systems consistent with nix. We will continue to do that. We look forward to working with our state partners on this. They are very important part i would say i have indulged the time and i apologize. This is an area of Common Ground where we can actually Work Together on this and i look forward to that. Senator koontz. Thank you so much attorney general lynch for your leadership of the department of justice and for appearing before the Appropriations Committee again. I was encouraged in your testimony earlier that you are focused on the smart and effective enforcement of our existing gun laws. I think the budgetary proposals you laid out and the elements of the executive order you have covered are strong and good attempts to do exactly that. I was pleased to hear you as the nations top Law Enforcement official review what you believe to be the wellsettled constitutionality of the actions proposed an executive orders and the actions proposed in the budget. Rather than debating that further i will move forward to what you view is the most valuable parts of the budget requests. Something where this committee will be taking action. A portion of the president s announcement was the addition of 200 new atf and 230 new fbi personnel. As we discussed i have seen tragically firsthand in my hometown of wilmington what a dramatic spike in gun violence can do to disrupt the town and a community, to repaint and k pain andn wrea loss on families and whole neighborhoods. And i and grateful for how the department of justice through its Violence Reduction network has provided additional resources. I have also seen how access to better quality background checks, access to better quality ballistic information and an increased federal Law Enforcement presence can make a significant difference. Can you explain in a little more detail why these new atf agents and new fbi personnel, these new examiners and investigators are really necessary . And how they can help reduce gun violence, not just in my hometown but in rural areas and urban areas all over this country . Ms. Lynch with respect to the request for increased resources for atf, we had discussed resources of allow us to hire 200 new investigators. Some would work on increased paperwork for background checks, but the agents will be focusing on the Violent Crime problems we find to be so troubling in so many of our cities and towns and neighborhoods. They would be working in conjunction with task forces at state and local offices. We have found this to be extremely effective ways at focusing on the hotspots in particular areas. It would allow us also to increase the amount of enforcement we provide over the internet sales. But to really focus on the Violent Crime problems plaguing so many of our cities. In addition to the agents we are requesting, the resources we are requesting and would begin using this year would also go toward strengthening what is called the ballistics initiative. This is a Law Enforcement to Law Enforcement initiative that essentially traces guns found at crime scenes as well as casings. Essentially all firearmsrelated evidence and shares that information on a nationwide basis with Law Enforcement entities. It allows us to make connections, to find connections between firearms, between those who are using the firearms. We are opening a National Center for analysis located in huntsville, alabama. It is due to open in a few months. This is a tool our Law Enforcement agencies depend upon greatly. The ability to track firearms is of great importance. In particular the ability to track stolen firearms is one we feel can protect our communities. Stolen firearms and even those lost do not end up in the hands of lawabiding americans. The unit in the hands of criminals. And they are recovered during criminal investigations. Sadly they are recovered at the rate we are seeing of 1300 a year on average over the last five years once a crime has already been committed. One of the things these regulations would do is allow us to begin those investigations earlier and hopefully intercept those shipments before they fall into the hands of criminals. Let me in closing thank you for the very good work your team has been doing in partnership with the Wilmington Police department, john skinner who is the lead. The bureau of assistance has done a great job. I got to see how better access to ballistics tools has increased our homicide case clearance rate in wilmington from 10 to 50 this year. That makes a real difference. Having access to worldclass and timely analysis and insight of ballistics evidence has significantly improved the investigatory and prosecutorial outcomes in my hometown. I am excited about this work. Its my hope on a bipartisan basis we can invest resources to strengthen federal Law Enforcement to tackle gun violence around the country as said by senator mcconnell ski in senator mikulski in the beginning. It is a crime. Its a shame that americans literally and theyre going to church to worship, going to see movies, going to Elementary School have been victims of gun violence. We must do more together to tackle this very real problem facing our nation. Thank you madam attorney general. Thank you mr. Chairman and thank you attorney general for being here with us today and thank you for your service to our country. Very appreciative. I want to begin my statement by echoing what we have heard across the board and that is the deep tragedy we all feel when gun tragedies occur. It hurts us all and certainly our prayers and thoughts are always with those people deeply affected. I do think that acknowledging a greater frustration by unilateral actions that the administration is chosen to take to curb the gun violence. Part of the executive actions seen ambiguous and provide confusion for law orders. But in other parts it seems more about political messaging. But we should not not take action. You have spoken very eloquently about the laws that are already on the books. I would like to focus on where our Common Ground is. As you know, much of the work that we have talked about today has been conducted in West Virginia. This system is in clarksburg, West Virginia and the tracing facility is in martinsburg, West Virginia. Their efforts are invaluable to ensure gun ownership is processed in an efficient and responsible manner. I have visited both of these facilities and i have seen the professionalism and the deep commitment that they have to getting it right. You did mention that they are overstressed and overloaded and hopefully through the appropriations process that we work through last year, we will make sure that we are able to employ more so that they can make it and successfully complete it within a timely. Timely fashion. For background checks. I hear that youre going to go to a 24 hour system. With every seven days, 24 hours, is that goal . Ms. Lynch yes, the goal is to increase the capacity of the Current System so that we would responsive on a 24 hour day seven day a week basis. , currently, we are limited by staffing, and we are able to operate 17 hours a day, actually, i am