WASHINGTON, D.C. – A bipartisan duo in Congress is hoping lightning will strike twice on sequester legislation.
Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., paired with the Republican senator from Maine, Susan Collins, to reintroduce a bill Wednesday that would allow federal agencies and departments more flexibility implementing sequester cuts.
The sequester originally was intended to force the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction to negotiate $1.5 trillion in cuts from the federal budget through 10 years. However, the committee failed to meet the deadline. On March 1, the sequester slashed $85 billion across the board from the federal budget for this fiscal year.
Udall and Collins presented their case Wednesday morning, asking for strategic cuts as opposed to across-the-board. Although the sequester affects cuts for 10 years, the first fiscal year will cut spending among agencies equally. Afterward, the cuts become more flexible. Agencies would have to submit their plans to the House and Senate appropriations committees five days before implementing budget decisions.
“Rather than meat-ax cuts, our bill will set priorities,” Collins said.
Udall and Collins are teaming up again after working together on the Reducing Flight Delays Act, which granted the FAA flexibility to alleviate flight delays. Udall’s bill breezed through the Senate from introduction to unanimous passage in one day. The next day, the House approved the measure by a wide margin, 361-41.
The 112th Congress, which ended in 2012, was the least productive on record since the infamous “do-nothing Congress” of the 1940s. Critics argued that members of the 113th Congress sent the FAA bill on the fast track because of their own frequent-flier habits. Udall countered criticism about the bill’s swift passage, saying flying wasn’t restricted to elite travelers.
“If you go to (Ronald Reagan National Airport), you’ll see cab drivers, tourists – it’s more than just members of Congress,” Udall spokesman Mike Saccone said. He added that the Collins-Udall bill builds on the momentum of the FAA bill.
Udall and Collins said they would set priorities for sequester cuts. In an interview with The Durango Herald, Udall mentioned border security, Meals on Wheels and the Head Start program are his top priorities for flexible cuts.
Some agencies already have felt sequester hits or will in the coming months.
Charlotte Pirnat, executive director for Tri-County Head Start, which provides early-childhood services in La Plata, Archuleta and Montezuma counties, already is planning for the sequester. Though their fiscal year doesn’t begin until September, Pirnat expects to cut $128,000, a 5.27 percent trim, to the operating budget because of the sequester.
“Personnel gets the biggest cut because it is 80 percent of the overall budget,” Pirnat said. “We can’t cut utilities or rent, so we’re left with the hard decisions.”
Tri-County Head Start will shutter one Head Start classroom at Animas Valley Elementary School in Durango at the end of the school year. Another classroom of eight infants at Cortez High Desert Early Head Start will close before Christmas. Currently, three Head Start classrooms serve 24 students in Cortez.
Pirnat said decisions about which Head Start classes to cut were based on enrollment.
