Yellow Ribbon Army regulations

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As the father of an Army Blackhawk pilot, the husband of a retired Army nurse, and a 25-year veteran of the Marine Corps, John Kline considers it a personal priority to ensure government keeps its promises to our veterans. Since arriving in Washington in 2003, he has considered it one of his greatest duties in Congress to support our veterans of today and tomorrow.

Well, tomorrow could be March 1st.

On February 13th, the House Democrats on the Appropriations Committee issued a report outlining the impacts of what is commonly called “the sequester”.

ECONOMIC RISKS
On March 1st, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will sequester $85 billion in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 spending as mandated by the Budget Control Act, unless Congress acts. This across-the-board cut will slow economic growth and job creation while cutting services and investments critical to the American people. Sequestration comes on top of $1.5 trillion in discretionary cuts already enacted, a large part of the reason the economy contracted in the 4th quarter of 2012.

The Bipartisan Policy Center estimates at least a million jobs will be lost due to sequestration. The Congressional Budget Office estimates up to 1.4 million jobs are at stake – wiping out more than half the entire job growth achieved for all of last year.
A recent study from George Mason University projects a loss of 2.14 million American jobs if sequestration takes effect.

Virtually everything that government touches would be impacted … some may not care that the IRS would furlough employees (until they have a tax question) … but many would be upset that Border security research would be cut 50 percent eliminating tunnel detection work cargo security at the borders, small aircraft detection and interdiction, and maritime security plus Border and Customs Patrol Agents would be furloughed 12 to 14 days.

Millions of dollars will be cut from Education and Workforce programs … and some of those may be ones that Chairman Kline has questioned in the past … so that could put a smile on his face.

But Mr. Kline may not be happy to read that “The furloughs and hiring freeze will impact veterans most heavily because veterans make up 44 percent of the DOD civilian workforce as the Department of Defense (DoD) is considering the furlough of up to 800, 000 civilian employees (the entire workforce) for up to 22 days.”

Specifically, the report states : “The Army will cut Yellow Ribbon transition assistance, services at Soldier Family Assistance Centers, and Army Substance Abuse programs.”