ATF agents inspect an apartment building in Los Angeles after a raid. The White House will opt to leave the top job at the ATF vacant, avoiding a potentially difficult nomination battle amid a larger ongoing debate over gun control. | AP Photo White House to demote ATF chief — to keep him on the job The move is aimed at avoiding a confirmation battle at the scandal-plagued agency blamed for the 'Fast and Furious' gun-running operation.

The White House thinks the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is doing such a great job, they’re planning to demote him.

The unusual move allows the administration, which has said fighting gun violence is a top priority, to avoid a nasty confirmation hearing for a troubled agency.


The Obama administration has no plans to name a permanent director for the agency, and career agent Thomas Brandon has been serving as the acting chief since April. But by law, he can’t hold that interim title for longer than 120 days, and that clock runs out on Oct. 27.

Brandon confirmed to POLITICO that he has agreed to stay on while re-assuming his previous title of deputy director – but still serving as the agency’s highest-ranking official.

“We're not going to nominate you, but we have full confidence in you if you stay at the ATF,” Brandon said, recounting the explanation he received from the White House.

"If they don't nominate anybody and I revert back to just the deputy director, but I'm still the CEO, I will give the taxpayers what I've always given them: a hard day's work,'' Brandon said in an interview Wednesday following a summit on violent crime hosted by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.

The arrangement would leave the federal agency in charge of regulating the firearms industry and investigating illegal guns without an official leader indefinitely, even as gun violence has once again become an administration priority. President Barack Obama has vowed to do all he can to reduce gun violence in the wake of last week's college shooting in Roseburg, Oregon -– where he plans to travel to pay respects to the victims on Friday -– all while continuing to castigate Congress for refusing to pass new gun control laws.

A White House official did not deny that Brandon's title would be changing even as he remains the ATF's top-ranked official, adding that he “is currently fulfilling the role and is providing the outstanding leadership the Bureau needs at this time.”

The ATF has faced chronic vacancies since 2006 when Congress started requiring that appointees win Senate approval for the top position, which oversees 2,500 agents charged with enforcing federal laws on alcohol, tobacco and firearms. In recent years, the bureau has faced continuing accusations of scandal and mismanagement, most notably the “Fast and Furious” gun-running operation in which the agency sold weapons to Mexican drug cartels in an effort to track them.

In fact, the ATF has only had one permanent director under Obama: B. Todd Jones. His confirmation became a priority as part of a flurry of executive activity to reduce gun violence in early 2013 in response to the mass shooting of 20 schoolchildren and six educators in Newtown, Conn.

But Jones left on March 31 to take a job at the National Football League. Brandon, then Jones’s deputy, has been serving as acting director since. Over the summer, the administration showed signs that it planned to nominate Brandon to the position permanently, but it later reversed course.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, who would oversee any ATF confirmation hearings, has stepped up his criticism of the agency recently. On Sept. 14, he wrote to Lynch expressing concerns about whistleblowers’ claims of sexual harassment at the bureau -- and their accusation that Brandon and Jones were both aware of the allegations.

Grassley said on Wednesday that such issues would definitely come up in confirmation hearings for a future ATF director.

“There’s no question that anybody nominated to lead the ATF will face difficult questions about the agency and its future,” Grassley said in an email. “There are far too many questionable activities going on at the agency like the alleged sexual harassment and discrimination that the Judiciary Committee is investigating.”

Brandon joined the ATF in 1989, after spending four years in the Marines. He spent most of his career in the Detroit field division, rising to the top rank there before taking charge of the Phoenix field division in the wake of Fast and Furious. But he was only there for about two months before moving to Washington to be the bureau’s deputy director in October 2011.

Brandon, 55, could have retired five years ago. “But I’m a public servant and remain that,” he said. The mission of the ATF is “in my blood,” he said, saying he is committed to the ATF “troops” and holds respect for the Justice Department’s top officials.

To keep up morale in the face of the leadership vacancy, Brandon said he plans “a lot of internal messaging, and I do know that the attorney general, the deputy attorney general, and the White House have said they want to show a lot of support to me.”

He also said he expected the current political emphasis on guns would ensure that ATF remains a top administration priority.

But gun control advocates aren’t so sure.

“As a matter of policy and politics, it's clear that President Obama should nominate an exceptionally well-qualified law enforcement veteran to be the nation's top cop in the fight against illegal guns,” said Arkadi Gerney, a senior vice president of the Center for American Progress who has also advocated folding the ATF into the FBI. “If the Republican-led Senate, which claims to want to enforce the laws on the books, fails to confirm the nominee -- well, then it's on them."

The ATF has long suffered something of an identity crisis, growing out of an agency first created by the Treasury Department to collect taxes on tobacco and liquor in the late 1800s. Guns became part of the portfolio in the 1930s, and they became its main focus in the second half of the 20th century. After the Sept. 11 attacks, the ATF moved under the umbrella of the Justice Department.

Brandon was philosophical about being asked to take a drop in stature while holding the same authority, paraphrasing a quote from Gen. Colin Powell: "Don't align the position so close to your ego that your ego goes with it."

The agent currently serving as acting deputy director, Ronald Turk, would remain Brandon’s No. 2. It’s unclear what his job title would be, Brandon said, but Turk would be the equivalent of the Chief Operating Officer to his chief executive role.

“We’re in uncharted waters here," Brandon said, "and looking long-term."