Excerpt
SUMMARY: With no compromise in sight, communities across the country are bracing for sequester to kick in during the coming weeks. Ray Suarez looks at effects for workers and government programs at the state-level. Gene Grant of New Mexico PBS, Gretchen Frazee of WTIU and Flo Jonic of Rhode Island Public Radio share their perspectives.
RAY SUAREZ (Newshour): Now an update on the impact of federal spending cuts known as the sequester.
The government must reduce spending in most programs across the board by $85 billion dollars this year -- the latest fallout, federal officials announced today they're postponing auctions for new oil and gas leases in California. Those bids were planned for an area that features one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the country.
Staffing and budget problems were cited as one of the several reasons for the decision, but when it comes to tracking the effect of the sequester, it's a tricky thing. While some cuts have already hit, others are still to come and some may be avoided.
One of the most immediate and visible changes, furloughs for air traffic controllers that led to flight delays, ended within a week of when the cuts took effect. That's because Congress and the president signed a bill quickly providing new relief for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Some other furloughs, such as at the State Department, have been avoided through budgetary maneuvers. But the president maintains incremental fixes are the wrong approach to the sequester.
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