[Larson wrote similar letters to The Honorable Dan Burton, Chairman, Committee on Government Reform, House of Representatives; The Honorable Pete V. Domenici, Chairman, Committee on Budget, United States Senate; The Honorable John R. Kaisch, Chairman, Committee on Budget, House of Representatives; and The Honorable Fred Thompson, Chairman, Committee on Government Affairs, United States Senate. As background, these Chairmen wrote a joint letter dated September 22, 1999, requesting the Treasury Department Inspector General (IG) to list all of the outstanding recommendations it made to agencies in reports issued during the period from January 1, 1998, to September 30, 1999, and to further specify what progress the agencies have made in implementing these recommendations. As Larson notes, these outstanding recommendations include those regarding ATF correcting errors in the NFRTR, which are more fully described in the IG's December 18, 1998, report, available elsewhere on this Web Site.] Eric M. Larson P.O. Box 5497 Takoma Park, Maryland 20913 (301) 270-3450 larsone@erols.com April 22, 2000 The Honorable Richard K. Armey Majority Leader House of Representatives Washington, D.C. 20515 Dear Congressman Armey: I am writing to you in my capacity as a concerned private citizen, Associate Member of the Collector Arms Dealers Association, and as a scholar and collector of historic firearms. This is about the Treasury Department Inspector General's (IG) December 1999 letter to you about Treasury-wide and bureau-specific recommendations it made that are still unresolved. Some of the latter regard errors the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) created in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR). The NFRTR is used to keep track of machine guns and similar items as required by the National Firearms Act (NFA) of 1934, as amended. The IG determined that ATF has improperly registered thousands of firearms; not followed procedures in registering and transferring ownership of these firearms; deliberately destroyed firearm registration records; and that ATF, since at least 1981, has known that 100,000 or more firearms are registered to people who are dead and done nothing about it. This violates the law and Congressional intent that these firearms be strictly regulated. ATF has done virtually nothing in response to the IG's recommendations, as documented in my enclosed testimony dated March 28, 2000, submitted to the House Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government Appropriations. Congressman Armey, I first testified before the Congress about these errors in 1996. When I complained to the IG about them in 1997, the IG declined to investigate and referred my complaint to ATF, which predictably absolved itself in a biased internal investigation. In response to my complaint that the IG had shirked his duties, The Honorable Dan Burton, Chairman, House Committee on Government Reform, believed my allegations had merit and ordered the IG to investigate them. In late 1998, the IG determined that four of the five allegations I made are true, and recommended that ATF take action to correct errors it created in the NFRTR. I believe that more than 5 years of stonewalling by ATF ought to be enough. It appears that ATF's actions may constitute mismanagement, waste, abuse and possibly misconduct in the administration of a Government program. Holding ATF accountable for correcting these errors is part of moving toward a results-oriented govenrment as embodied in the Government Performance and Results Act. Correcting these errors would make government a better institution and improve its credibility. If I can assist you and your staff in encouraging ATF to fulfill its responsibility to the American people by correcting these errors, please contact me and I will be glad to do so. Sincerely, (signed---Eric M. Larson)