Posts Tagged ‘debt ceiling agreement’

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 House Armed Services Committee is expected to adopt an amendment to the fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill requiring the Pentagon to provide the panel a list of programs officials would like to see funded but that were not included in the administration’s budget request. The amendment, to be introduced by Rep. Duncan Hunter Wednesday during the committee’s markup, comes as the service chiefs for the first time in years did not submit “wish lists” to Congress of desired programs that were left out of the department’s FY 2013 budget request …

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 …

With bipartisan agreement in the Senate last week to adopt the discretionary spending limit from last August’s Budget Control Act, battle lines over fiscal 2013 appropriations are stark, if not all that far apart. While the Senate Appropriations Committee made plans to mark up the federal government’s 12 spending bills using a cap of $1.047 trillion, House appropriators next week are expected to allocate spending among the 12 appropriations bills using the lower, $1.028 trillion ceiling from the budget resolution drafted by Budget Chairman Paul Ryan …

The White House on Wednesday said President Obama would not sign any fiscal 2013 appropriations bills as long as House Republicans stick with their plan to cut spending below the levels in last August’s deal to raise the nation’s debt ceiling. The Budget Control Act sets discretionary spending at $1.047 trillion for next year, the amount Senate Democrats plan to adopt, while the House budget plan reduces federal spending to $1.028 trillion. Despite the threat, which was included in a letter from the Office of Management and Budget to House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers, House leaders remain intent on passing spending bills that conform to the lower spending cap …

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman is asking the Senate Armed Services Committee to limit proposed reductions in the Army’s end strength along with other changes to DOD’s fiscal 2013 budget request when it marks up next year’s defense authorization bill. In a letter to Committee Chairman Carl Levin and Ranking Member John McCain, Lieberman concludes that the department’s budget request would “create unacceptable risks to our national security …