The White House's budget proposal calls for a 3.6 percent reduction in ATF funding, and the bureau says it would gut the its gun-running initiative along the Mexican border. From the Washington Post's story:
"ATF is the ugly stepchild of every administration," said Jim Cavanaugh, a former senior ATF official who retired last year after 30 years. "It would really handicap the ATF.
"It's a small agency and it's a lean machine. There are not a lot of agents and inspectors. There is not a lot of fat. With ATF, it would be an amputation."
