You may have missed this one or it may have been sufficiently technical to elude you, so on this very wonky, but very pertinent snippet of the federal government in action, we’re going to pull it apart and take it slow. On March 26, 2013, the President signed into law what became Public Law 113-6, the “Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013.” Generally, there is one, major appropriations bill per year (“the budget”).  But, Congress can pass a “continuing resolution” at any time during the fiscal year to provide budget authority for federal agencies and programs to continue operations in between annual budgets.  In this case, it’s a temporary spending bill to keep the federal government funded through the end of the current fiscal year (FY2013 ends 9/30/2013). The continuing resolution started in the US House of Representatives as H.R. 933, where it passed on March 6.  The US Senate then took it up, agreed with it, added no less than 594-pages of “amendments,” and passed it on March 20.  The House decided to accept the Senate amendments, and passed that on March 21.  The President signed it into law on March 26. You’re wondering why all the technical explanation? Because woven into those 594-pages of amendments to a budget bill were multiple provisions pertinent to firearms, ammunition, Federal Firearms Licenses (FFLs), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).  And, four of those amendments to the continuing resolution arguably extended into the indefinite future four provisions that have otherwise required annual approvals for a number of years. The four provisions of particular interest are as follows: 1. a prohibition against the ATF requiring gun dealers to conduct annual inventories to ensure no lost or stolen guns for any business licensed under 18 USC sec. 923, Licensing; 2. a continuation of the definition of “curios or relics,” a class of guns and ammunition that can be imported into the US outside of normal regulations, as found in 27 CFR sec. 178.11, “Meaning of terms” at page 1135, “Curios or relics”  as well as preserving those items listed in ATF Publication 5300.11 (ver. January 1, 1991) 3. a prohibition against the ATF from refusing to renew a dealer’s license for lack of reported business transactions as otherwise specified at 18 USC sec. 923, Licensing 4. a requirement that the ATF attach a disclaimer to firearms trace data to “…make clear that trace data cannot be used to draw broad conclusions about firearms-related crimes.” The language used in the amendments for items one through three, above, was “…in the current fiscal year and any fiscal year thereafter, no funds made available by this or any other Act shall be expended to promulgate or implement…”  For item four, above, the language was “For fiscal year 2013 and thereafter…  A plain reading of this language would seem to indicate that spending on these items is now permanently prohibited, which, in Washington-speak, is to say, until Congress decides differently.