Va. senators hope for plan to delay some defense cuts

Virginia's two U.S. senators predicted Monday that a committee attempting to reach a budget deal and avoid another government shutdown may be able to provide relief from some automatic defense cuts - but not all of them.

Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine aren't expecting the panel to draft a long-range plan to address deficit and spending issues, but they hope to see a one- or two-year budget that gives some certainty to federal spending.

The two Democrats are part of the 29-member House and Senate committee formed in October, in the wake of the government shutdown, tasked with drafting an annual budget. Congress approved a temporary spending plan to reopen the government after the 16-day shutdown.

The bipartisan group has until mid-December to draft a plan for the consideration of the entire Congress before Jan. 15, when the government runs out of money.

"The 'big deal' is probably not going to happen this time," Warner said in a radio interview in Charlottesville. "What may happen - and what I hope will happen - is we at least get a budget for the rest of this year and maybe next year and get rid of the worst parts of sequestration."

Sequestration, a mandatory, decadelong reduction of $1.2 trillion from defense and domestic programs that began earlier this year, will likely not be stopped entirely but could be slowed, the senators predicted. If no changes are made, the Pentagon is required to cut $52 billion over the next 11 months.

The defense cuts are particularly worrisome for many in Hampton Roads, where the Navy has said it would have to scale back ship repairs and other contract work and curtail some military operations. Kaine and Warner also have noted that the non-defense cuts mean significant reductions in research, education and other programs.

The task facing Congress: find a way to blunt the planned cuts by approving new revenue, substituting other cuts or a combination of the two, without adding to the federal deficit.

"This is not talking about spending additional money and adding additional deficit," Warner said. "If we're going to get relief from the spending cuts, it has to be paid for. It means we have to cut somewhere else."

Kaine said it's possible the automatic cuts could be "restructured" so that some are postponed, giving defense officials and others more time to plan.

"Some of the sequester cuts are most dangerous because without being able to plan in advance, you just kind of have to make them in an ugly way," he said.

The House-Senate committee has met twice publicly, with the bulk of the work and negotiations being conducted privately by its senior leaders, Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, and Rep. Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, who lead the budget committees in the two chambers.

Kaine said committee members, both Democrats and Republicans, share a desire to reach some kind of deal.

"I think everybody realized the shutdown was bad for the country and generally bad for the politics of anybody who was on the pro-shutdown side," he said.

Warner said in a telephone interview that he's "cautiously optimistic" a deal can be reached, but he's "not in the room" for the private talks.

It's a work in progress.

"Nothing is done until it's done," he said.

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