Posts Tagged ‘automatic spending cuts’

Defense advocates in Congress are becoming resigned to the prospect that the two parties will be unable to reach a deal to reverse government-wide automatic spending cuts before they begin to take effect in January. As a result, DOD may suffer cuts up to $55 billion in fiscal 2013 beyond the spending reductions already being imposed on the defense budget. Even if lawmakers fail to overturn the sequester in a lame-duck session at the end of the calendar year, the additional cuts could be somewhat limited if Congress strikes a deficit-reduction deal in the first several months of 2013 …

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday urged Congress to reach a compromise to reverse the budget sequester, saying the plan passed by the House Thursday to shield the Pentagon from the automatic spending cuts coming next year will result in “a greater likelihood of sequester.” Even though the House Republicans’ strategy would inoculate DOD from $55 billion in additional spending reductions in fiscal 2013, because it targets domestic programs benefitting the poor and the middle class, the president will never accept it …

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Wednesday rejected the House plan to replace the first year’s portion of the automatic spending cuts with a package of reductions in domestic programs, saying a “balanced approach” that includes tax revenue is needed to avert the budget sequester. The leverage provided by the threat of government-wide spending cuts is needed if the two parties are to reach a deal before the end of the year on taxes and deficit reduction, Reid said …

The House Budget Committee approved legislation Monday to reverse the discretionary portion of the $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts slated to take effect next January. Earlier in the day, the panel passed a bill outlining more than $300 billion in savings over 10 years to take the place of the budget sequester …

The House Budget Committee today will mark up two bills intended to undo the government-wide automatic spending cuts slated to go into effect in January. One bill would nullify the discretionary portion of the $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts set to be imposed under last August’s Budget Control Act, while a second would carry out more than $300 billion in savings over 10 years to take the place of the sequester …

The Veterans Affairs Department budget would be exempt from the automatic spending cuts slated to go into effect starting next January, the Office of Management and Budget ruled Monday in response to congressional inquiries. While the decision is boon for veterans programs, it means defense programs would be forced to absorb the brunt of the $500 billion in automatic cuts that would be imposed from 2013 through 2021 …

If Congress has made no headway on reversing the budget sequester over the next several months, officials would need to begin planning how the defense budget could absorb up to $500 billion in additional spending cuts over the next decade, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey said Monday. “I would anticipate that we would have to begin doing some planning in the mid to late summer if we have any chance at all of reacting to it should it trigger …

With Congress set to mark up defense spending and authorization bills in the coming weeks, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta reiterated his case for lawmakers to adopt the department’s new strategy and fiscal 2013 budget request. “The message we wanted to send Congress today is that there is very little margin for error with this package,” Panetta said Monday at a Pentagon news briefing …

Monday’s meeting of Allies for Cherry Point’s Tomorrow was intended to discuss the possibility of new BRAC rounds and substantial cuts in DOD spending, but local and state officials from eastern North Carolina first heard about personnel cuts already affecting Fleet Readiness Center East. “Our numbers are going to be going down,” said Mary Beth Fennell, the facility’s business operations director …

Republicans and Democrats for the most part agree that the $500 billion in automatic defense spending cuts slated to take effect starting in January should be overturned, but the two sides have made no progress in negotiating a solution to the problem, raising the prospect that DOD’s budget suffers dramatic cuts for at least a short time. “The problem Sen. McCain and all members who want to address this right now are facing is that nothing has changed …