Senate Sequester Votes Expected to Fail, Mandatory Cuts to Take Effect on March 1
February 28, 2013
The U.S. Senate is expected to defeat competing Democratic and Republican proposals today to ward off the $85.3 billion automatic across-the-board spending cuts that are scheduled to take effect on Friday, reports Politico.
Several higher education programs would face 5.1 percent reduction in funding should the planned spending cuts take effect. Although Pell Grants would not be affected, research funds for the National Institutes of Health would be cut by $1.5 billion and the National Science Foundation by $286 million. Funding for the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and federal work study programs would be reduced by $38 million and $50 million, respectively. Additionally, TRIO and GEAR UP would lose $58 million.
Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) last week announced a plan to replace the mandatory spending cuts with a $110 billion package (S. 388) in revenues and alternative savings. The proposal would increase taxes on individuals with incomes of more than $1 million annually, eliminate some farm subsidies, and reduce appropriations in the future for defense spending.
Late Wednesday evening, Senate Republicans agreed on a sequester substitute (S. 16) that would require President Obama to send an alternative package of targeted spending cuts to Congress by March 15. The Republican proposal would rule out tax increases or increases in any non-defense accounts. No more than half the president’s proposed cuts could come from the defense portion of the budget, and defense cuts would have to be consistent with policies established by the fiscal 2013 defense authorization law (PL 112-239), CQ reported.
Lawmakers could overrule the president’s plan, though, by adopting a resolution of disapproval that would require Obama’s signature or a two-thirds majority in both houses ” both very unlikely events.
Sen. Reid predicted that the Republican plan will be soundly rejected by majority Democrats, but the GOP is likely to turn back the Democratic proposal due to its proposed tax increases, according to CQ.
Obama will meet with House and Senate leaders at the White House on Friday to discuss the sequester as the Office of Management and Budget works toward meeting the midnight deadline to put the cuts in motion.
Related Links:
White House Estimates of State-by-State Impacts of Sequestration
Politico
https://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/dual-senate-sequestration-votes-expected-to-fail-88210.html
CQ
https://www.cq.com/doc/news-4227058
Michelle Cormier Mott
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