About the only form of sequestration worth doing…
Five top environmental groups and many others active on science and technology issues yesterday joined an alliance of nearly 3,000 entities — dubbing itself “the non-defense discretionary community” — in urging Congress to stop $1.2 trillion in long-term slashes to their side of the federal ledger that are set to take effect come January.
The sweeping effort to neutralize what Washington knows as “sequestration,” automatic across-the-board spending cuts added to last year’s debt deal, comes as lawmakers remain in the early stages of reckoning with a fiscal dilemma not expected to end until the waning days of this winter’s lame-duck session. The White House budget office is also in the early stages of its preparation, according to a spokeswoman who said that federal agencies are “not yet” participating in sequester plans but that “our staff is conducting the analysis needed to move forward if necessary.”
In the meantime, green activists working to stave off further hits to U.S. EPA and Energy Department funding must keep one eye on the next fiscal year’s appropriations cycle while hoping the sequester is tamed.
