Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) wants to tap the Pentagon’s war-funding account to help offset some of the impacts of sequestration budget cuts, which are becoming more apparent to the public.
Many Americans will start seeing the impact of sequestration this week, when the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) begins furloughing employees. The FAA and airlines are warning the public that flights could be delayed by hours because of the administration workers’ forced unpaid leave. The furloughs were spurred by the $1.2 trillion in decade-long, across-the-board sequestration cuts to defense and non-defense spending that started March 1.
Democrats and Republicans in the White House and Congress largely reject the sequestration cuts, though some non-military-focused GOP lawmakers have warmed to them as a solution to cutting the federal deficit. But the two parties remain at odds over an alternate plan to lower the deficit.
Reid took to the Senate floor Monday to highlight how in “airports across the country, millions of Americans will get their first taste of the pain of sequestration.” Still, he added, “many Americans have been feeling that pain for weeks,” pointing to how the Air Force has grounded a third of its fighter jets and bombers. He also noted how more than a million federal workers–including at the Pentagon–are preparing for furloughs, and how programs such as Meals on Wheels and Head Start face cuts.
“We cannot ignore the sequester’s overall effect on Americans and on programs that help small businesses grow, fund crucial medical research and keep our children and seniors safe,” Reid said.
So, he offered a solution: “We are winding down military operations in Afghanistan, as we did in Iraq. We can use the savings from wrapping up two wars to avoid the full brunt of the sequester’s arbitrary cuts.”
Funding for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are in the Pentagon’s Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) budget, which is separate from its base operating budget.
“Since the worst of the sequester cuts are creating an emergency situation, and we should consider using some of those funds to offset their impact,” Reid said about the OCO budget. “I’m not proposing we use these funds to offset the entire sequester. But Congress has the power to avert the most painful and senseless of the sequester’s cuts using these monies.”
The Pentagon faces a $500 billion reduction to planned defense spending because of sequestration. The cut for fiscal year 2013, the current year, would be approximately $41 billion from March 1 through Sept. 30.
Talk in Congress about sequestration has noticeably died down in recent weeks, as lawmakers have devoted considerable attention to gun-control and immigration legislation. Sequestration, still, has been discussed to varying degrees in congressional hearings on the FY ’14 budget proposal the Pentagon sent to Congress two weeks ago.
“Twenty-eight Republicans in the Senate and 174 Republicans in the House voted to impose the sequester,” Reid said Monday. “If those same Republicans would work with Democrats, we could act now to protect families and businesses, ensure our national defense and save Americans millions of hours spent waiting at the airport.”
Republican leaders had no immediate response to Reid’s proposal to tap OCO funding to offset the sequestration cuts.