According to npr
Even in rough-and-tumble 21st-century Washington politics, the confirmation process for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives can be brutal.
One former ATF agent once likened it to walking into a buzz saw.
Now, that same former agent, David Chipman, is President Biden’s nominee to lead the ATF.
Chipman’s nomination has garnered strong support from gun control advocates and has drawn fierce opposition from gun rights groups.
That has set the stage for what will likely be a tough confirmation fight in an evenly divided Senate as the Biden administration seeks to combat what the president has called an “epidemic” of gun violence. That fight will kick off in earnest starting Wednesday, when Chipman is slated to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a confirmation hearing.
The ATF, the main agency that enforces federal gun laws, hasn’t had a confirmed director in six years. It has had only one since Congress made the position Senate approved in 2006, in large part, observers say, because of opposition from the National Rifle Association and other gun rights groups.