Sequester to continue until next budget deal in January

The agreement passed in Congress to prevent a U.S. default will allow extreme budget cuts to continue until January, the deadline for the next debt deal. The nation was already sequestered before the government shutdown, and since March, $80 billion has been cut from the spending budget. Experts say that economic growth has been slowed, and with the new deal, the trend will continue.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said of his agency: “Congress did not end the budget uncertainty that has cast such a shadow … over this Department for much of the year.” Spending cuts have also already hurt medical and science research and services for the poor and elderly. A survey by the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, along with several other societies, concluded that hundreds of jobs have been cut in the fields of science and medical research.

The Bipartisan Policy Center noted that long-term spending cuts will have a greater impact on the defense industry.  “The full brunt of the cuts hasn’t hit, and if we go down the sequester path for too long, we won’t be able to reverse the devastating impacts,” is reported.