Discretionary spending accounts are taking the full brunt of the economic damage that a sequester would bring, but they’re the wrong part of the budget to cut, said a coalition of more than 3,500 organizations from across industry, academia, and the public sector on Monday. Making their case to Congress and the White House, the coalition members—comprising the Aerospace Industries Association, Non-Defense Discretionary United, and the Task Force on Innovation in America—said during a press briefing in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 11 that the federal spending on which they rely provides the most basic functions that America counts on for its way of life, from defense to air traffic control to college loans. Yet cutting discretionary spending, at just eight percent of GDP, can’t fix the deficit, they said. Hunter Rawlings of the Association of American Universities said “discretionary spending is not growing and is not the problem. Cutting investment in the future is not the way to solve the problem.” Click here to continue to the full report.
The Air Force is shoring up its cyber defenses both on and off base for critical infrastructure such as water and electrical power, and industry experts are calling for more, even specialized, dedicated microgrids offsite to support USAF operations in case of a total blackout caused by cyberattacks.
