NFA Provisions Pulled From Senate Bill, Latest Version Restores Some

The latest version of the Senate tax bill, coinciding with the House One Big Beautiful Bill Act, j ust dropped on Politico, and it contains some big news for the NFA world. After a brief setback that pulled all NFA changes from the bill, the new version now aligns more closely with the version passed in the House. Keep reading for all the details.

NFA @ TFB:

• The History Of The NFA: A Timeline
• SILENCER SATURDAY #333: 'If Money Was No Object' – NFA Grail Guns
• Any Other Weapon (AOW): The NFA Catch-All
• TFB TUTORIAL: Using The ATF Eforms NFA Application System
• Silencer Saturday #369: ATF Silencer Industry Data

In an earlier article, I had asserted that the Byrd Rule (requiring all provisions in this kind of bill be about taxation and revenue rather than policy) would not be a problem for the NFA provision of the bill. I was wrong. The Senate Parliamentarian (a referee of sorts who applies the procedural rules of the Senate) ruled that taking silencers, short barrel rifles, short barrel shotguns, and AOWs out of the NFA was not primarily a budget matter, but rather was a policy decision. I disagree with that analysis, given that the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Miller upheld the entire NFA at least in part on the basis that it was a revenue bill. But I am not the Senate Parliamentarian, and her colleagues in the Senate do not seem likely to overrule this decision.

The most recent bill language splits the baby, keeping SBR, SBS, AOW, and silencer regulation under the NFA but taking the tax stamp cost to $0. That includes both the making tax filed with a Form 1, and the transfer tax due on a Form 4. Because a free tax stamp is still a tax stamp, this leaves the current regulatory structure of the NFA in place while simply cutting the fee to $0. By changing only those fees rather than what is or is not an NFA item, this language seems more likely to survive the Byrd Rule.