[House Report 117-623]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


117th Congress   }                                    {        Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session      }                                    {       117-623

======================================================================

 
 RESOLUTION CALLING FOR THE SUBMISSION TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
   OF CERTAIN INFORMATION IN THE POSSESSION OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL 
              REGARDING NICS INDICES SELF-SUBMISSION FORMS

                                _______
                                

 December 13, 2022.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

    Mr. Nadler, from the Committee on the Judiciary, submitted the 
                               following

                              R E P O R T

                             together with

                             MINORITY VIEWS

                      [To accompany H. Res. 1477]

    The Committee on the Judiciary, to whom was referred the 
resolution (H. Res. 1477) calling for the submission to the 
House of Representatives of certain information in the 
possession of the Attorney General regarding NICS Indices Self-
Submission Forms, having considered the same, reports favorably 
thereon with amendments and recommends that the resolution as 
amended be agreed to.

                                CONTENTS

                                                                   Page
Purpose and Summary..............................................     2
Background and Need for the Legislation..........................     2
Hearings.........................................................     3
Committee Consideration..........................................     3
Committee Votes..................................................     3
Committee Oversight Findings.....................................     5
Committee Estimate of Budgetary Effects..........................     5
New Budget Authority and Congressional Budget Office Cost 
  Estimate.......................................................     5
Duplication of Federal Programs..................................     5
Performance Goals and Objectives.................................     5
Advisory on Earmarks.............................................     5
Section-by-Section Analysis......................................     5
Minority Views...................................................     5

    The amendments are as follows:
  Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the 
following:

That Attorney General Merrick Garland is requested to furnish to the 
House of Representatives not later than 14 days after the adoption of 
this resolution, in a complete and unredacted form, a copy of any 
documents, records, reports, memos, correspondence, or other 
communication either generated or received by the office of Attorney 
General Merrick Garland that refers to information regarding NICS 
Indices Self-Submission Forms, how the determination to distribute the 
forms was made, and the reasoning for distributing the forms from 
January 1, 2016, through the present date.

    Amend the title so as to read:
    A resolution Calling for the submission to the House of 
Representatives of certain information in the possession of 
Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding NICS Indices Self-
Submission Forms.

                          Purpose and Summary

    H. Res. 1477 is a non-binding resolution of inquiry that 
requests Attorney General Merrick Garland provide certain 
documents to the House of Representatives relating to NICS 
Indices Self-Submission Forms. Representative Andrew Clyde (R-
GA) introduced the resolution on November 16, 2022. It 
currently has no co-sponsors.

                Background and Need for the Legislation


                I. BACKGROUND ON RESOLUTIONS OF INQUIRY

    Under the rules and precedents of the House, a resolution 
of inquiry is used to obtain information from the executive 
branch. A resolution of inquiry is directed to the President of 
the United States or the head of a Cabinet-level agency, 
requesting facts within the control of the executive branch.\1\ 
As a ``simple resolution,'' designated by ``H. Res.,'' a 
resolution of inquiry does not carry the force of law. 
``Compliance by the executive branch with the House's request 
is voluntary, resting largely on a sense of comity between co-
equal branches of government and a recognition of the necessity 
for Congress to be well-informed as it legislates.''\2\
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    \1\Christopher M. Davis, Resolutions of Inquiry: An Analysis of 
Their Use in the House, 1947-2011, Cong. Res. Serv. R40879 (May 15, 
2012).
    \2\Id. at 2.
    \3\House rule XIII, clause 7.
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    House rules afford resolutions of inquiry a privileged 
parliamentary status. A Member files a resolution of inquiry 
like any other legislation. The resolution is then referred to 
the proper committee of jurisdiction and the committee may: (1) 
report the resolution either favorably or unfavorably; or (2) 
choose not to report the resolution. If the committee does not 
report the resolution to the House within 14 legislative days 
of its introduction, however, a motion to discharge the 
resolution from committee can be made on the House floor.\3\

                      II. NEED FOR THE LEGISLATION

    This resolution requests that Attorney General Merrick 
Garland provide the House with complete and unredacted copies 
of any documents, records, reports, memos, correspondence, or 
other communication either generated or received by the Office 
of Attorney General Merrick Garland that refers to information 
regarding NICS Indices Self-Submission Forms, how the 
determination to distribute the forms was made, and the 
reasoning for distributing the forms from January 1, 2016, 
through the present date.
    The resolution relates to an FBI form that allows an 
individual to voluntarily relinquish their rights to own or 
possess a firearm based on their lack of mental capacity. It 
has been said that the submission of this form results in the 
individual's entry into the FBI's National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System, or ``NICS,'' as a prohibited person 
who is federally barred from possessing a firearm, and that an 
individual may not be able to remove their name from NICS 
system. Representatives in support of the resolution indicated 
that that FBI stopped using the form in 2019.
    Without more information before this Committee regarding 
this form, the Committee cannot take an informed position on 
the resolution. There may be legitimate reasons to investigate 
the use of the NICS form. However, the Committee has had 
several hearings and markups on firearms-related issues, and no 
Member raised a single issue or asked any questions about these 
forms. Moreover, the resolution requests records that date back 
to three different presidential administrations, with four 
different Attorneys General--suggesting that time is not of the 
essence. Members are free to request this information directly 
from the Department of Justice's Office of Legislative Affairs 
and have other means at their disposal to obtain the requested 
information. Because a Resolution of Inquiry is not the best 
vehicle for obtaining this information, particularly in the 
waning days of this Congress, the Committee reported the 
resolution with no recommendation.

                                Hearings

    The Committee on the Judiciary held no hearings on H. Res. 
1477.

                        Committee Consideration

    On December 7, 2022, the Committee met in open session and 
ordered the resolution, H. Res. 1477, reported without 
recommendation with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, 
by a rollcall vote of 21-14, a quorum being present.

                            Committee Votes

    In compliance with clause 3(b) of House rule XIII, the 
following rollcall vote occurred during the Committee's 
consideration of H. Res. 1477:
          1. A motion to report H. Res. 1477 with no 
        recommendation was agreed to by a rollcall vote of 21-
        14. The vote was as follows:
        
        
                      Committee Oversight Findings

    In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of House rule XIII, the 
Committee advises that the findings and recommendations of the 
Committee, based on oversight activities under clause 2(b)(1) 
of House rule X, are incorporated in the descriptive portions 
of this report.

                Committee Estimate of Budgetary Effects

    Pursuant to clause 3(d)(1) of House rule XIII, the 
Committee adopts as its own the cost estimate prepared by the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 
402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974.

               New Budget Authority and Tax Expenditures

    Neither clause 3(c)(2) of House rule XIII and section 
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, nor clause 
(3)(c)(3) of House rule XIII and section 402 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, are applicable because this 
legislation does not provide new budgetary authority or incur 
costs.

                    Duplication of Federal Programs

    Pursuant to clause 3(c)(5) of House rule XIII, no provision 
of H. Res. 1477 establishes or reauthorizes a program of the 
federal government known to be duplicative of another federal 
program.

                    Performance Goals and Objectives

    The Committee states that pursuant to clause 3(c)(4) of 
House rule XIII, H. Res. 1477 requests Attorney General Garland 
to transmit to the House of Representatives documents relating 
to NICS Indices Self-Submission Forms.

                          Advisory on Earmarks

    In accordance with clause 9 of House rule XXI, H. Res. 1477 
does not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax 
benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(e), 
9(f), or 9(g) of rule XXI.

                      Section-by-Section Analysis

    The following discussion describes the resolution as 
reported by the Committee.
    H. Res. 1477, a non-binding resolution of inquiry, requests 
Attorney General Merrick Garland transmit to the House of 
Representatives any document relating to NICS Indices Self-
Submission Forms, how the determination to distribute the forms 
was made, and the reasoning for distributing the forms from 
January 1, 2016, through the present.

                             Minority Views

    H. Res. 1477 requests the Attorney General to provide the 
House of Representatives with documents generated or received 
by the Attorney General regarding National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System (NICS) Indices Self-Submission Forms. 
This information would assist the Committee in ensuring that 
law-enforcement agencies are not depriving individuals of their 
Second Amendment rights without due process.
    The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) operates the NICS 
system, which Congress established in the Brady Handgun 
Violence Prevention Act of 1992.\1\ Federal Firearms Licensees 
(FFL) must contact the FBI to conduct a NICS check when 
performing a background check to determine whether a potential 
purchaser falls within a prohibited category. When the FBI runs 
a NICS check, it searches three different databases, all 
maintained by the FBI:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System (NICS), https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/nics 
(last visited May 13, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
           Interstate Identification Index (III)--a 
        database of criminal history information;
           National Crime Information Center (NCIC)--
        information on individuals subject to civil protection 
        orders and arrest warrants; and
           NICS Indices--information provided by 
        federal and state agencies that is not included in the 
        III or NCIC, such as information that shows an 
        individual has a mental health history or is an illegal 
        alien.\2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\Bureau of Justice Statistics, The NICS Improvement Act of 2007, 
https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=49 (last visited May 13, 2021).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    NICS provides full service to the FFLs in thirty states, 
five U.S. territories, and the District of Columbia, while 
providing only partial service to seven states.\3\ Thirteen 
states perform their own checks through NICS.\4\ The FBI 
reported over 3.5 million NICS checks in April of 2021 and over 
4.5 million NICS checks in March of 2021--the most NICS checks 
in any month ever.\5\ In March 2018, President Trump signed the 
Fix NICS Act into law, which ensured that relevant state and 
federal agency records are submitted to the NICS databases in a 
timely manner.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\Federal Bureau of Investigation, National Instant Criminal 
Background Check System (NICS), https://www.fbi.gov/services/cjis/nics 
(last visited May 13, 2021).
    \4\Id.
    \5\Federal Bureau of Investigation, NICS Firearm Background Checks: 
Month/Year, https://www.fbi.gov/file-repository/nics_firearm_checks_-
_month_year.pdf/view (last visited May 14, 2021).
    \6\Fix NICS Act of 2017 (Pub. L. 115-141).
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    Between 2016 and 2019, the FBI created and utilized what it 
termed a ``NICS Indices Self-Submission Form.''\7\ By 
completing and signing the form, a citizen authorized the 
disclosure of his or her mental health records to NICS Indices, 
resulting in the denial of the citizen's right to purchase or 
possess a firearm.\8\ An FBI spokesperson stated that the form 
was purportedly ``created to provide an avenue for individuals 
to self-report to the NICS Section when individuals felt they 
were a danger to themselves or others.''\9\ According to 
documents acquired through the Freedom of Information Act by 
Gun Owners of America (GOA), the FBI used these forms on at 
least 15 occasions.\10\ On these occasions, armed FBI agents 
presented the forms to the individuals, raising the concern 
that the individuals signed the forms--and surrendered their 
constitutional rights--under duress.\11\ Although some 
individuals who signed the forms allegedly made threats of 
violence,\12\ it is unclear if any of those who signed the 
forms were arrested, tried, and convicted for making threats.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\Tim Cooper, FBI Pressures Citizens to Forfeit 2A Rights Via NICS 
E Check Form, Free Range American, Sep. 21, 2022), https://
freerangeamerican.us/nics-e-check-gun-rights/.
    \8\Id. (see form below).
    \9\Gabe Kaminsky, EXCLUSIVE: The FBI Secretly Pressured Americans 
to Waive Away Their Gun Rights, Daily Caller, (Sep. 6, 2022), https://
dailycaller.com/2022/09/06/fbi-second-amendment-nics/.
    \10\Id.
    \11\Id.
    \12\Id.
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    The Gun Control Act of 1968 specifies who is prohibited 
from purchasing or possessing firearms.\13\ The identities of 
those individuals prohibited by law from purchasing or 
possessing firearms are maintained in the NICS system. The Act, 
however, does not authorize--nor does it contemplate--an 
individual self-submitting his or her name into the NICS 
System. In fact, Democrats are aware of this fact. At the same 
business meeting during which the Committee considered H. Res. 
1477, the Committee also considered H.R. 8361, a bill that 
would authorize a individuals to voluntarily place themselves 
on a list to prohibit them from purchasing or possessing a 
firearm.
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    \13\See 18 U.S.C. 922(g).
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                                                Jim Jordan,
                                                    Ranking Member.







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