Gosh, wasn’t the last month of planning for and arguing over the sequestration budget cuts a lot of fun? Guess what — we get to do it all over again!
The fiscal cliff deal Congress passed New Year’s Day doesn’t do away with sequestration — it just delays it two months. Federal Times would like to hear your thoughts about the prospect of a delayed sequestration. How does this throw off your plans? What does the uncertainty mean for your projects? Are you angry that this mess has just been kicked down the road once again? Are you worried that another pay freeze will get mixed into the next round of negotiations? What’s the buzz around your office?
E-mail me at slosey@federaltimes.com if you’d like to talk. You can stay anonymous if you like.
3 Comments
We’ll go through another period of useless drama.
Like it or not, the federal budget needs to be cut. A simple solution would be to use the FY07 budget as a base and make minor tweaks for inflation (no cuts or adds greater than 5%).
That would make a big dent in the deficit.
I’m tired of us taxpayers throwing good money after bad…..Political “Leaders” wages.
They’re not doing their jobs. If my employees did as horribly as this group they’d be out looking for new jobs.
I have tried to think of 1, just 1 thing that congress accomplished in 2012 and it’s sad to say I couldn’t think of 1 thing. Yes they passed some appropriation bills in 2012 but those were 6+ months LATE.
They, and unfortunately the majority of the citizens of this great country, don’t realize what their lack of action is costing us.
I have spent my life in the Federal government (Active duty Air Force and now Federal Civilian) and I’m in a job where I can see what they are costing us, just by not passing appropriation bills on time. We go into these continuing resolutions where we get a few months worth of budgets and we can’t accomplish anything.
Getting a small portion of a years worth of budget causes programs and projects to be delayed 3 to 6 months. Because of Fiscal laws, we have less time to spend that fiscal year money before it’s no longer available which means higher costs. When you have anyone do a job in 3 months when under normal circumstances it take 6 to 9 months, well, we have to pay a premium. Don’t forget the overhead costs associated with managing program changes because we didn’t get a years worth of funding.
At the very LEAST, they need to set a law that if congress does not pass agency appropriations by September 15, the agency will get 80% of the previous years appropriation authority on October 1. This would allow agencies to get some level of manageable authority at the beginning of the year and reduce some level of costs while they continue to “negotiate” the final budgets.
This fiscal cliff/sequestration AND the current coninuing resolution EXTREMELY compounds agencies abilities to plan and execute any reasonable level of programs for the current year.
What a great example our “Leaders” are to our nation and it’s youth. They are supporting and building an attitude of No Accountability. Didn’t get your job done on time, no biggie, change the due date.
They were sure focused and pro-active during the election period. If we could just get that same focus for national issues……
This group deserves a raise!? Give me a BREAK!
What I haven’t seen published is the affect of sequestration on the Administration and Congress. How will cuts impact them? Will they have any cuts?
I say we all write in Congressional Term Limits in our next ballots…….
Personally speaking, I could more easily accept/agree with a continued pay freeze on my pay as a Federal employee if I knew that our “leadership” was doing their part.
It’s a big joke and laughing stock to the world.