"The sequester is now a week away. (And the next budget crisis, the expiration of the Continuing Resolution that funds the government, is only a month away). We’re at the point now where the clock seems like it’s ticking louder. It’s not just a background noise, but a “tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock,” as a punctuation, a growing annoyance, saying, “fix-this, fix-this, fix-this.”

On Capitol Hill, a Republican alternative to sequestration started to take shape as well. This idea is to give the president authority to cut the budget by $85 billion instead of forcing across-the-board, automatic cuts. (Remember the law requires the across-the-cuts be made at the program level, including sub-accounts, although it’s not exactly clear what that means.)

There is no way to tell how such a plan would impact federal Indian programs. The Indian Health Service, for example, would compete with every other program, and constituency, within the Department of Health and Human Services. At the end of the day the department would still have to reduce its numbers by the amount required in the sequester, but there would be flexibility."

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Sequester clock ticks: fix-this, fix-this, fix-this (Mark Trahant 2/22)

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