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With fewer new federal contracts on the horizon, vendors are trimming staff, changing direction and hedging their bets as sequestration plays out, according to the results of an exclusive Federal News Radio survey. Contractors are also blaming sequestration for low morale in their offices.
Agencies should not change their spending plans for this year or next, but need to start assessing which programs would be impacted by automatic sequestration cuts if Congress doesn't cancel them, OMB acting Director Jeff Zients told Congress Wednesday.
Civilian agency payrolls would be most vulnerable under automatic budget cuts set to kick in on Jan. 2. A new AIA and George Mason University study claims 229,000 non-defense federal jobs would be eliminated.
Benjamin Friedman, a CATO Institute research fellow, said sequestration prevents intelligent spending cuts, but that doesn't necessarily mean DoD lacks room to make smarter ones.
In two memoranda released late Friday, the Office of Management and Budget told agency heads they must cut 5 percent from their 2014 budgets and use evidence-based evaluations.
House military personnel subcommittee asserts retirees have already paid for their health care via their military service, omits DoD proposal to hike TRICARE fees.
Navy and Marine Corps officials are upbeat about how they'll fare under the current round of budget cuts. Navy Department officials said the strategy DoD developed following the passage of the Budget Control Act aligns perfectly with the capabilities of the maritime services.
Congress returns to session this week with a few short months to reach a budget resolution for the new fiscal year starting Oct. 1 and agree on how to avoid the automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion over the next decade that will be triggered Jan. 2, 2013, under the Budget Control Act debt limit deal. But don't expect much to get accomplished before the election, say budget experts.
Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Monday there are certain capabilities the service must keep whole as it navigates the current budget situation. He did not offer clues as to what the service would be willing to give up.