Everything We Know About What’s Happened Under Sequestration
While the White House Easter Egg Hunt was saved from sequestration, other programs haven’t been so lucky. Here’s our guide to what’s happened since the across-the-board budget cuts took effect. (Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images)
by Theodoric Meyer
ProPublica, May 7, 2013, 8:45 a.m.
We’ve updated our sequestration explainer to reflect new developments. It was originally published on April 11, 2013.
When the annual White House Easter Egg Hunt faced cancellation this year due to the package of mandatory budget cuts known as sequestration, the National Park Service kicked into high gear. It rescued the event — held since 1878 — with money from “corporate sponsors and the sale of commemorative wooden eggs,” according to the Washington Post.
The nation’s airline passengers also caught a break last month when Congress passed (and President Obama quickly signed) a bill allowing the Federal Aviation Administration to shift some funds and halt the furloughs of air traffic controllers that had been blamed for long flight delays around the country.
But other programs haven’t been so lucky. Children in Indiana have been cut from the federally funded Head Start preschool program, and one Head Start program in Maine is being cut altogether. Furloughs have begun for employees of agencies from the U.S. Park Police to the Environmental Protection Agency. And cuts to Medicare have forced cancer clinics to turn away thousands of patients who are being treated with drugs the clinics can no longer afford. Continue reading “Everything We Know About What’s Happened Under Sequestration”
Members of the American Federation of Government Employees(AFGE) gather during a rally on outside the Department of Labor on March 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. The demonstrators gathered to protest the effects of the government sequester. (AFP PHOTO/Brendan SMIALOWS)
American Federation of Government Employees Local 704 