(CTN News) – According to a memo obtained by The Associated Press, the Justice Department’s leadership is reportedly thinking about merging the two departments in charge of enforcing laws pertaining to guns and drugs as part of a larger government reorganization.

In a recent letter, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche asked for input on a reorganization proposal that would merge the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives into a single entity. T

his plan aims “to attain efficiency in resources, case deconfliction, and regulatory activities.”

Justice Department’s Blanche request is aimed at increasing efficiency.

Additionally, it is part of the Trump administration’s larger endeavour to restructure and shrink the federal government, which has already led to several court disputes.

Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has directed several agencies to start developing plans for program reform and staff reduction.

Perhaps the most important portion of the proposal is the Justice Department’s idea to merge the Anti-Terrorism and Transportation (ATF) and Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

These are two agencies that often work together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), but they have quite different missions and objectives. Neither the merger of the two agencies nor the removal of individual agents were mentioned in the email.

FBI conducts research and investigations in the following areas:

Explosives, gun trafficking, arson, and violent crimes. Furthermore, it provides technical support for the process of identifying firearms used in criminal activity and doing intelligence analysis in shooting-related scenarios.

In every state and territory in the nation, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is in charge of making sure that drug laws are followed. The Justice Department agents of this group are primarily focused on stopping the unlawful trafficking of fentanyl and other street drugs, as well as fighting criminal drug networks.

Following the historic selection of FBI Director Kash Patel to serve as the acting head of the agency tasked with enforcing gun laws, questions have been raised about the future of the ATF. The ATF’s involvement in gun control has long been criticized by conservatives.

According to Giffords, one of the founders of a group that supports more stringent gun laws, “cutting resources from the ATF would literally be defunding the police.”

The goal of the ATF is to prevent violent gun crime and to protect public safety, as Emma Brown, Executive Director of the Giffords Institute, has consistently stated. Together, the two organizations would lead to a decrease in resources, undermining initiatives to stop illegal gun transactions, straw buyers, and firearm traffickers.

The Justice Department’s plan also calls for closing numerous field offices nationwide that handle matters like antitrust and environmental protection, as well as consolidating policy offices in Washington.

According to the proposal, the tax division’s attorneys and employees, together with those in charge of dealing with allegations of public corruption, ought to be moved to the US Attorney’s office.

Only a Washington-based “core team of supervisory attorneys” is exempt.

Only five lawyers remain, despite their continued employment in the public integrity division, which is in charge of managing charges of public corruption.

According to the Associated Press, the division’s attorneys were told that they will be strongly encouraged to look for work with other federal agencies instead of staying on staff.

The strategy remains incomplete even though a Justice Department official did not immediately address the issue. The Justice Department’s agency heads were instructed to respond by April 2nd with any reservations they may have had about the ideas.

SOURCE: AP