Not on hold per se but backed up like I said. I have several sent in Jan. 2013 that went pending Mar. 2013 and spoke with the examiner 60 days ago. At that time she said they would be approved in 30-60 days. To reconfirm I called today and was told these went pending July 2013?? and would be an additional 90 days. I said that these went pending in March not July and the examiner told me they would be approved sometime this week -60 days ago.
The response was "we have had to revise everything in light of new changes" So what has changed in 60 days?? This kind of ambiguity from a Federal agency translates into- if you do not have a stamp in hand when this is enacted, you won't get it. (you are fooling yourself if you think this isn't going down).
I foresee these being returned/rejected stating the need for CLEO sign off, etc. This also solves their "backlog" problem because the majority will be simply be rejected in lieu of the new requirement and those same majority will most likely be abandoned. Problem solved. most convenient.