Obama Seeks Delay Of Spending Cuts

President Barack Obama last week called for Congress to pass a second postponement of across-the-board federal spending cuts, called sequestration, that are to take effect March 1. Sequestration was initially scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1, but Congress moved back the deadline. Obama said a second delay would give him and lawmakers time to work out a package of spending reductions and tax reforms for revenue generation that would replace sequestration and move toward controlling the federal deficit. The Association of Public & Land-grant Universities, Research!America, and the Science Coalition—a group of 50 public and private research universities—are among the groups that have launched initiatives against sequestration, describing how the spending cuts would devastate federal support of academic research.