'Sequestration' cuts to have minimal effect for Los Angeles
Affected programs include Public Housing, Section 8 Housing
LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Automatic spending cuts that would take effect Friday if Congress cannot resolve a dispute over the federal budget would have minimal impact on Los Angeles County services overall, but a number of social-welfare programs would be affected, county officials said today.
According to a statement released by the county, the so-called “sequestration” cuts would impact less than 1 percent of the $5.4 billion of federal revenue the county received in the 2012-13 fiscal year.
County officials noted that most of the county’s federal money came through programs that are exempt from the cuts, such as Medicaid, foster care and adoption assistance funds, child support enforcement and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
However, select programs administered by the county’s Community Development Commission and departments of Community and Senior Services and Public Health would be subjected to roughly 5.3 percent across-the-board cuts, according to the county.
Affected programs would be Community Development Block Grant, Public Housing, Section 8 Housing, HOME Investment Partnerships; Workforce Investment Act and Older Americans Act programs; Ryan White AIDS Emergency Assistance, Public Health Emergency Preparedness, HIV/AIDS Core Prevention and Surveillance; Tuberculosis Control, Infectious Disease and other public health programs.
The potential cuts would be the result of an ongoing dispute in Washington, D.C., over the national debt. The Friday deadline was set at the end of last year as part of a deal to avoid the “fiscal cliff.”
America is now living with a sequester—across-the-board budget cuts negotiated between President Barack Obama and the Congress more than a year ago that are part of an effort to reduce spending without raising taxes.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Delays were reported at airports in the Southland and around the nation today as a result of the furloughing of air traffic controllers under federal sequestration budget cuts.
The average delay Sunday night was three hours in the Southern California Terminal Radius Approach Control (TRACON), according to National Air Traffic Controllers Association spokesman Doug Church.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Airport traffic control towers in Pacoima, Fullerton, Riverside and Ramona will remain open longer than expected, with the Federal Aviation Administration announcing today it was delaying the closures that were expected to begin this weekend as part of forced spending cuts under
sequestration.
The towers were expected to close beginning Sunday, with a tower in Lancaster scheduled to close April 21 and a tower in San Diego closing May 5.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Airport traffic control towers in Pacoima, Fullerton, Riverside and Ramona will close April 7 under the Federal Aviation Administration’s forced spending cuts, the agency announced today.
In addition, a control tower in Lancaster will close April 21 and a tower in San Diego will shut down May 5, FAA officials said.
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Nothing, it seems, can bridge the bottomless political divide in Washington over taxes and spending.
Not an election last November that gave President Barack Obama a second term. Not polling that shows a strong majority of Americans want both sides to compromise in forging an agreement to reduce chronic federal deficits and debts.
