Tennessee U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07) introduced a bill this week that would prohibit federal funds from being used to finalize, implement, or enforce the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) interim final rule amending the Export Administration Regulations.
The interim final rule, announced on April 30 during Small Business Week, would restrict the ability of American firearm, ammunition, and related-component manufacturers to obtain a license to export their products for sale.
The Department of Commerce’s BIS says the changes under the rule will “better protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, which include countering the diversion and misuse of firearms and related items and advancing human rights.”
Green argues that the rule – which follows a 90-day pause that lasted over 180 days on civilian firearm exports – “further demonstrates the Biden administration’s antipathy for the Second Amendment.”
“If BIS doesn’t change course, Americans will continue to lose their livelihoods while enriching black market gun dealers,” Green said. “From the small businesses that sell firearms, ammunition, and components, to the manufacturers and shippers that make and deliver them, the rule will only further devastate businesses harmed by the pause. Making these changes permanent only weakens the rights of law-abiding citizens while giving criminal actors a monopoly of force.”
“The last thing struggling small businesses need is to be put out of business by the Biden administration, which is exactly what this reckless pause is doing,” Green added. “It is shocking that the Biden administration would release this rule during Small Business Week.”
Green’s bill, called the Stop the Bureaucratic Ineptitude Shuttering Respectable and Upstanding Lawful Exporters Act (Stop the BIS RULE Act), is endorsed by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Gun Owners of America, and the Firearms & Ammunition Import/Export Roundtable (FAIR Trade Group).
In the U.S. Senate, Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) has also taken action in an attempt to stop the rule from taking effect, announcing his plan to file a Congressional Review Act (CRA) Resolution of Disapproval to squash the rule.
“The Biden Administration has made clear that its goal is to damage the firearm industry that supplies the products that allow Americans to exercise their constitutional freedom. Crushing American exports is just a means to skirt the legislative process and do damage to yet another Biden-disfavored industry. I’m pleased to lead my colleagues in an effort to overturn this unlawful and unwarranted rule and protect American enterprise,” Hagerty said.
The National Shooting Sports Foundation estimated that the final rule, if it were to take effect, would have an economic impact that “easily exceeds” $250 million on U.S. manufacturers and exporters.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
