Homeland Security Bill To Revamp Alcohol Bureaucracy

<editor's note>
From Beer South Buzz e-newsletter
</editor's note>

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms will cease to exist in its 
present form as a result of the most extensive restructuring of the 
federal government in over 50 years. Under the terms of the homeland 
security bill which President Bush signed into law in December, the 
bureau's law  enforcement functions (and about 90% of its more than 
5,000 employees) will be transferred to the U.S. Department of Justice, 
where a division called the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and 
Explosives will investigate criminal activities ranging from arson to 
moonshining.

"Basically, what's staying at the Treasury Department is the collection 
of revenue," said Daryl McCrary, ATF program manager for public and 
governmental affairs. A new branch, tentatively called the Tax and Trade 
Bureau, will oversee taxation on alcohol, tobacco and firearms, as well 
as regulatory affairs like brewery licensing and label approval.

"We've got 60 days to accomplish this," said Jim Crandall, program 
manager for the ATF's public affairs division in Washington, DC. "We've 
got a transition team scrambling to find the best way of doing this." 
According to an article in the Washington Times, however, it could take 
a year or more for all of the provisions of the homeland security bill 
to go into effect. In the meantime, both McCrary and Crandall 
emphasized, it's business as usual: brewers will fill out the same forms 
and deal with the same offices until further notice.

Charles Bacon, program manager at the ATF's Boston office, said he 
didn't think the realignment would seriously inconvenience brewers, 
although it might delay some of ATF's goals like setting up an on-line 
program for submitting label approval applications.

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