House Appropriations Panel Leader Presses for Sequestration Solution

On Oct. 9, the ranking Democrat of the House Appropriations Committee Rep. Norm Dicks sent a letter urging his House colleagues to replace sequestration with a balanced approach to deficit reduction.  Unless Congress acts during the lame duck session, sequestration—a process of automatic and indiscriminate across-the-board cuts of $109 billion to defense and non-defense discretionary spending—would occur on Jan. 2, 2013. The Obama administration recently issued a preliminary report speculating figures of potential cuts to many, but not all, federal program accounts, including construction investment accounts. Among his comments to his congressional peers, Rep. Dicks noted the harmful impact of the potential sequestration cuts on federal construction programs. Specifically, he highlighted the possibility of over $2 billion in cuts to military construction and nearly $196 million in cuts to the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water funds used to improve water and wastewater infrastructure. Furthermore, the congressman cited the “severe impact on employment in the construction industry” such cuts would bring. AGC’s own analysis of the Obama administration’s preliminary sequestration report found the potential of over $5 billion in cuts to federal construction investment accounts. However, as previously noted, that administration report did not explicitly include all construction investment accounts, nor did it take into account the funding levels in the current FY 2013 continuing resolution, which funds government programs through March 27, 2013. Consequently, AGC estimates the actual cuts to federal construction programs would be higher than $5 billion in FY 2013.  Additionally, the administration report did not explicitly show cuts to the Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water funds. To view AGC’s chart detailing some cuts to construction accounts detailing in the administration report, please click here. AGC continues to advocate for sensible, long-term deficit reduction that takes into account the need for adequate investment to meet federal infrastructure and facility needs, in addition to comprehensive tax and entitlement reform. AGC holds that Congress should, at a minimum, delay sequestration in order to provide time to reach a more sensible approach. For more information, please contact Jimmy Christianson at (703) 837-5325 or christiansonj@agc.org.