Automatic spending cuts would bite more in 2014

[Omaha Steve]

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20131111/DAA095DG0.html

Nov 11, 3:18 AM (ET)

By ANDREW TAYLOR

WASHINGTON (AP) - The first year of automatic, across-the-board budget cuts didn't live up to the dire predictions from the Obama administration and others who warned of sweeping furloughs and big disruptions of government services. The second round just might.

Several federal agencies found lots of loose change that helped them through the automatic cuts in the 2013 budget year that ended Sept. 30, allowing them to minimize furloughs and maintain many services. Most of that money, however, has been spent.


This Aug. 1, 2013 file photo shows Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., flanked by Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., left, and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaking on Capitol Hill in Washington. The first year of automatic, across-the-board budget cuts didn’t live up to the dire predictions of those who warned of sweeping furloughs and big disruptions of government services, but the second round just might. “They squeezed everything to get through the first year thinking we would come to our senses,” said Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., of agency budget chiefs. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)


The Pentagon used more than $5 billion in unspent money from previous years to ease its $39 billion budget cut. Furloughs originally scheduled for 11 days were cut back to six days. The Justice Department found more than $500 million in similar money that allowed agencies like the FBI to avoid furloughs altogether.

Finding replacement cuts is the priority of budget talks scheduled to resume this week, but many observers think the talks won't bear fruit. Agencies that have thus far withstood the harshest effects of the across-the-board cuts in 2013 are bracing for a second round of cuts that'll feel a lot worse than the first.

FULL story at link.