Kaine discusses effect of sequestration with robotic firm

A high-tech company in Fredericksburg has become a go-to venue for U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine to illustrate the impact of sequestration and the federal budget stalemate on defense contractors.

Kaine, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Armed Services and Budget committees, on Friday made his second stop in six months at HDT Robotics on Wolfe Street.

As candidate Kaine, he visited the company last September with Sen. Mark Warner when talk of sequestration began to ramp up.

Now that it’s a reality, Kaine told company officials that lawmakers in Washington need to get back to preparing regular budgets to avoid the paralyzing uncertainty in the current approach. What’s at stake locally is clear: As the military trims programs, there’s less work for the many contractors in the Fredericksburg region.

The massive, untargeted spending cuts of sequestration, and the use of continuing resolutions to keep the government operating, are a bad-to-worse scenario, Kaine said.

“We’ve tried every gimmick known to man.”

But there are glimmers of hope on the political horizon, he said, with President Obama meeting with congressional leaders of both parties in recent days.

“We’re right in the midst of writing a 2014 budget, and we’re trying to, finally, come up with a 2013 appropriations bill, trying to figure out a way to lift the negative effects of sequester.”

The House of Representatives on Wednesday voted to keep the government operating through the end of the fiscal year, which would avoid a government shutdown when the continuing resolution expires on March 27.

A vote on the first Senate budget since 2009 could come within the next two weeks, Kaine said.

He added that his stop in Fredericksburg helps crystallize what’s at stake.

“The more I can see the effect it’s having on companies and individuals, the more I can persuade my colleagues that there’s a better path forward.”

During his hour-long visit, Kaine got an update from HDT officials on the local impact of the federal budget impasse, a look at products on the drawing board and a tour of the company’s research lab.

Cesar Romero, a software engineer, put a robotic arm through its paces and Kaine got a look at the company’s Protector robotic vehicle. It clears trails, can serve as a field stretcher and has a remote-controlled robotic arm.

A division of HDT Global, HDT Robotics makes an array of products and services catering to defense- and health care-related industries. It also has an engineering services division in the Lee’s Hill commercial center in Spotsylvania County and a manufacturing site in southern Stafford County.

There are about 25 employees in Fredericksburg; another 40 or so work at the Lee’s Hill location.

“The biggest issue in all of this is the uncertainty,” said Brian Dearing, vice president of business development and government relations at HDT Engineered Technologies in Fairfield, north of Lexington.

“We all understand that it’s very unlikely to maintain a U.S. defense budget” at pre-sequestration levels. “That’s just not maintainable,” with the end of the War in Iraq in 2010 and the war winding down in Afghanistan. Under sequestration, the Defense Department is facing cuts of about $500 billion over the next decade.

The current scenario “increases the risk for the company, the investments we make. It slows things down. It makes us more cautious,” Dearing said. As a result, “we’re less likely to hire on speculation.”

What’s ahead?

“We’re bracing for a couple tough months and maybe longer. We don’t know for sure.”

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