Judiciary Hates Sequestration, Too Friday night news dump bulletin just in from the White House: The sequester is still bad policy and hurting government agencies. This time, though, it’s not just another agency complaining about the hit — it’s the entire judicial branch saying its operations are being hampered by the across-the-board cuts that kicked in earlier this year. The White House has submitted a request for a $72.9 million supplemental appropriations bill to Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, to help curb layoffs, furloughs and cuts to programs, such as “drug testing, substance abuse, and mental health treatment services for defendants awaiting trial and offenders released from prison.” Since the sequester took effect in March, certain carve-outs have been made to the mandated cuts for different government agencies, including for meat inspectors and the Federal Aviation Administration. Here are key excerpts from the letter sent from Office of Management and Budget Director Sylvia Mathews Burwell to President Barack Obama, which then was passed along to Boehner: The Judicial Branch’s request notes that sequestration is impacting the ability of the Judiciary to meet its mission, similar to many Federal agencies across the government. States, communities, businesses, and non-profit organizations across the country are experiencing harmful impacts from sequestration. As a matter of comity, and consistent with 31 U.S.C. 1107, I recommend that you transmit this proposal to the Congress. However, one-off sequestration fixes will leave in place damaging cuts in other critical areas across the Government. The Administration has been clear that the only way to truly fix sequestration is to replace it with balanced deficit reduction, such as that proposed in your FY 2014 Budget. This proposal would provide $18.5 million to avoid further staffing cuts and furloughs in clerks of court and probation and pretrial services offices during the fourth quarter of FY 2013. This funding would save the jobs of approximately 500 court employees and avoid 14,400 planned furlough days for 3,300 court employees. In addition, $13.0 million would restore half of the sequestration cuts to drug testing, substance abuse, and mental health treatment services for defendants awaiting trial and offenders released from prison. Timely diagnosis and treatment of drug and mental health conditions is critical to defendants/offenders successfully completing their terms of release and ensuring community safety.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 23:06:33 +0000
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