A key House Republican lawmaker wants more money for states to conduct criminal background checks on gun sales, taxpayer dollars that he insists are already in the federal budget.
According to
The Hill newspaper, Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf, who heads the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations subcommittee, called on the Obama administration Tuesday to "reprogram" funds to two grant programs designed to keep felons from owning firearms.
In the last two fiscal years, the Justice Department has allocated $30.1 million to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) Act Record Improvement Program and the National Criminal History Improvement Program.
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"I believe that improving the data in the NICS index will improve the effectiveness of the national background check system and thereby reduce gun violence," Wolf told U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder in a letter, The Hill reported Wednesday.
The Justice Department shifted funds in both 2012 and 2011 to help states implement gun sales prevention measures, including the grant programs, a department spokesman told The Hill newspaper last month.
Justice officials "refocused" grant requests "to prioritize identification and submission of mental health records for persons prohibited from possessing a firearm" — a population representing "one of the most under-reported categories of prohibiting information," according to the law enforecement agency.
Wolf began his push for the NICS last spring when he included $12 million for a check system in the fiscal 2013 budget — a $7 million increase from the year before. The spending bill passed the GOP-controlled House but never reached the floor of the Democratic-led Senate.
The mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn. grade school Dec. 14 that left 20 children dead has renewed the national focus on gun control efforts, including better ways to keep guns out of the hands of felons and the mentally ill.
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