WASHINGTON >> Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday defended a Trump administration proposal to eliminate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, a major shakeup experts say would likely require congressional action to implement.

The Justice Department in a fiscal 2026 budget request has outlined a plan to merge ATF functions into the Drug Enforcement Administration, which would remain a single component. Bondi got questions about the plan during a House Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations subcommittee hearing.

Groups on both sides of the gun debate have found rare agreement in opposing the plan, though for different reasons. Gun control advocates say it will weaken enforcement, while one prominent gun owner rights organization called the merger idea an “abomination” that would “create a taxpayer-funded super agency to target gun owners.”

Bondi told lawmakers that “guns and drugs go together” and the merger would be a “great marriage between those two agencies.”

“They’re working hand-in-hand on task forces already. Now, they will be working under one umbrella, and it’s going to be great for our country,” Bondi said.

Bondi said the department is reorganizing the ATF. “We will not be having ATF agents go to the doors of gun owners in the middle of the night, asking them about their guns — period. They will be out on the streets with (the) DEA,” Bondi said.

Some legal experts say statutory languages could have to be changed by Congress before the Justice Department begins the merger.

Congress for years has appropriated funding to the bureau as its own line item. And a fiscal 2024 government funding bill stipulates that no funds may be used to “transfer the functions, missions, or activities” of the ATF to “other agencies or Departments.”

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 also stipulates that the ATF is established within the Justice Department and outlines the role of bureau director.

Meanwhile, gun rights groups have slammed the concept of merging the ATF into the DEA.

Critics of the plan say if ATF’s regulatory responsibilities are placed within a bigger agency with a larger budget, those resources could be turned against gun owners in the future during an administration looking to impose stricter gun policies.

Plus, federal gun regulation statutes would not simply disappear if the AFT is disbanded, they said.

Among the groups opposing the merger are the Firearms Policy Coalition, Gun Owners of America and the NSSF, a trade association for the firearms industry.