Has anyone heard of this?

Amendment to un-ban 7N6 ammunition successfully added to finance bill in US House, headed to Senate

http://gosar.house.gov/press-release/idea-successful-gosar-amendment-blocking-ammo-ban-inspired-prescott-az-citizens

I hadn't, but it still has a long way to go before it becomes law.

"An amendment to prohibit the use of funds to carry out the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosive Special Advisory entitled "Test, Examination and Classification of 7N6 5.45x39 Ammunition", dated April 7, 2014."

Is this some tricky legalese? How would defunding a ban make any difference?

The ATF is a regulatory agency under the Executive branch, as such it doesn't fall under the direct control of Congress. The only power Congress can assert  over executive agencies is the "power of the purse", i.e., the ability to deny them the money they need to execute their policies. If you remove a program from the budget it, for all practical purposes, ceases to exist. It doesn't undo the ban, it just denies the ATF the funds to enforce it.

That said, this is really more of a political statement than it is a viable means for re-introducing the importation of 7N6. The best case scenario is that such Congressional saber-rattling pressures the ATF into changing their position. Ultimately, government agencies will wither and die without funding and only Congress can give them that.

That's what I thought. No difference at all.

When prohibition was introduced a lot of states did not enforce it citing that if the federal government wanted to enact this law they could also foot the bill to enforce it. Don't know how that will play out regarding importing a banned item as someone will have to take a chance on importing it, which means even if more comes over it may not be cheap. But even if 7n6 makes it, over band it's priced too high for me it'd still make me feel better knowing it's available if I want it.

I wouldn't bet on seeing more 7n6 but thanks to those who are trying.