Biden admin skewered by GOP for rule designed to ‘intentionally harm’ gun industry

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FIRST ON FOX: Senate Republicans are scrutinizing President Biden's Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo over a move they claim is designed to "intentionally harm" the U.S. firearm industry. 

Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, led 22 other Senate Republicans in calling on the Biden administration to withdraw a "deeply misguided rule and its associated license revocations."

Last month, the Department of Commerce (DOC) announced an interim final rule (IFR) that would see valid export licenses revoked from American companies "that authorize exports of firearms to non-government end users" in certain areas. 

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Sen. Tim Scott led over 20 Republicans in calling on Biden's administration to withdraw a rule revoking export licenses for firearm companies. (Getty Images)

According to the DOC, the new rule is intended to "reduce the risk of legally exported firearms and related items being diverted or misused to fuel regional instability, drug trafficking, human rights violations, political violence, and other activities that undermine U.S. national security and foreign policy interests."

However, Scott alleged in a letter to Raimondo that the new policy is an example of Biden using the administrative state and the rule-making process as a means to "target legal U.S. industries and advance progressive policies." 

"We are concerned that the Department issued the Rule in an attempt to intentionally harm the firearms industry," the letter continued. 

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The Biden administration plans to impose new restrictions on firearms exports and increase scrutiny on transactions to limit diversions of guns to drug cartels, criminal groups, gangs and others. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

The Republicans slammed the fact that the new rule would "revoke existing licensing for 36 countries and subject current license holders to a new licensing system." Per the lawmakers, this is unprecedented, as the U.S. "did not take such a drastic step even when acting on grave national security threats in the past, including previous actions related to Chinese hypersonic missiles, nuclear weapons proliferation, or China’s resumed exercise of authority over Hong Kong."

The letter additionally requested that Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Undersecretary Alan Estevez and Assistant Secretary Thea Kendler are made available to potentially testify before the banking committee. 

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Secretary Raimondo said the rule was due to national security concerns. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

The correspondence was co-led by Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., and was signed by Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., John Thune, R-S.D., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Rick Scott, R-Fla., among several others. 

Lawrence Keane, senior vice president and general counsel of the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), told Fox News Digital in a statement that the rule is "another example of the Biden administration’s whole-of-government attack on the firearm industry for political purposes."

"This rule punishes firearm manufacturers and exporters by blocking hundreds of millions of dollars of lawful exports and will result in lost sales earnings and cost Americans good-paying manufacturing jobs," he added. 

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Sen. Scott has been critical of the Biden administration's rule-making decisions. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

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Keane further alleged, "There is no foundation to the Biden administration’s claim this over-burdensome rule is necessary to reduce overseas crime or improve national security."

The Department of Commerce did not provide comment to Fox News Digital.