Report Details Automatic Spending Cuts

October 3, 2012 -The White House Office of Management and Budget issued a 394-page report detailing how $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts over 10 years will affect individual federal programs beginning on January 2, 2013. Congress originally mandated these across-the-board cuts, known as “sequestration,” in the Budget Control Act of 2011. The cuts will apply equally to defense and non-defense domestic programs, so each will lose about $55 billion in Fiscal Year 2013.* The OMB report breaks down how the automatic, across-the-board cuts would hit more than 1,200 budget accounts, including:

• Education grants to States and local school districts supporting smaller classes, afterschool programs, and children with disabilities would suffer.
• The number of Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, Customs and Border Patrol agents, correctional officers, and federal prosecutors would be slashed.
• The Federal Aviation Administration’s ability to oversee and manage the Nation’s airspace and air traffic control would be reduced.
• The Department of Agriculture’s efforts to inspect food processing plants and prevent foodborne illnesses would be curtailed.
• The Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to protect the water we drink and the air we breathe would be degraded.
• The National Institutes of Health would have to halt or curtail scientific research, including needed research into cancer and childhood diseases.
• The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s ability to respond to incidents of terrorism and other catastrophic events would be undermined.
• And critical housing programs and food assistance for low-income families would be cut.

The nonpartisan Pew Center on the States translates that into human terms. The sequestration cuts ordered by Congress will cut $543 million in federal funding for food for women, infants, and children (WIC program). The same types of across-the-board cuts will burden hundreds of other programs, such as cuts for basic education ($1.3 billion), special education ($1 billion), low income energy assistance ($285 million) and child care and development ($187 million). Similarly, an article and letter, which 130 mayors have already signed onto, details the impact of sequestration on cities.

* Reprinted with permission from Nonprofit Advocacy Matters, a publication of the National Council of Nonprofits, your national network