Panel to vote: Shield vets spending from cuts?

Panel to vote: Shield vets spending from cuts?
By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Friday May 4, 2012

The House Budget Committee is poised to pass two measures on Monday to avoid across-the-board federal budget cuts in January and also restore $8 billion in previously approved defense cuts.

In the process, the committee also will move to clarify that veterans’ health care and benefits funds and administrative accounts are exempt from the across-the-board cuts during this sequester or any in the future. It also exempts Defense Department mandatory funds — used for some retirement, health care and education programs — from the automatic budget cuts.

This will not be the final word. Republicans who control the House plan to pass the two measures before Memorial Day, allowing them to claim they have presented a plan to avoid the dreaded across-the-board cuts that would require a 10 percent reduction in defense programs and an 8 percent reduction in most domestic programs. But the White House and Democratic-controlled Senate do not agree on the details.
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