Senate Bill Includes Funds for Shipbuilding, Won't Stop Civilian Furloughs

(Steve Helber | The Associated Press)

The U. S. Senate has passed a bill that is aimed at blocking sequestration spending cuts that would severely hurt local shipbuilding and repair facilities, particularly Newport News Shipbuilding (see image above), Virginia's largest employer.  The bill, however, will not protect civilian government workers - some 39,000 in Hampton Roads alone - who face furloughs and 20% cuts in their income.  Thus, some local fools who were duped into voting Republican in 2012 by GOP overtures to racist views and religious extremism may well yet get their just deserves for their stupidity and bigotry.  It will be most interesting to see how Scott Rigell, Randy Forbes and Rob Wittman - and Eric Cantor - vote when the bill reaches the House of Representatives.  Here are excerpts from the Virginian Pilot's coverage:

The Senate approved legislation Wednesday to lock in $85 billion in widely decried spending cuts aimed at restraining soaring federal deficits — and to avoid a government shutdown just a week away. President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats rejected a call to reopen White House tours scrapped because of the tightened spending. 

The bill provides more than $3 billion to Newport News Shipbuilding, one of the region’s largest employers, to move forward on significant projects including the refueling of the carrier Abraham Lincoln, the dismantling of the retired carrier Enterprise and the start of construction of a new carrier, the John F. Kennedy. A Senate amendment, promoted by U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., also restores funding for a college tuition assistance program for active-duty service members.

However, the legislation doesn’t provide money to block the likely furloughs of civilian government employees, including as many as 39,000 Navy and Marine Corps civilian workers in Hampton Roads, as part of $85 billion in automatic budget cuts – known as sequestration.

Federal meat inspectors were spared furloughs, but more than 100 small and medium air traffic facilities were left exposed to possible closure as the two parties alternately clashed and cooperated over proposals to take the edge off across-the-board spending cuts that took effect on March 1.

Final House approval of the measure is likely as early as Thursday. Obama's signature is a certainty, meaning the cuts will remain in place at least through the end of the budget year on Sept. 30 — even though he and lawmakers in both parties have criticized them as random rather than targeted.

I can't help but find some satisfaction in the fact that of the 100+ airports that may be closed, most are in red states, especially in the mind-west.  I hope the Neanderthals out there enjoy their long drives to other airports and that their home states feel the impact of their backwardness.