Potential defense budget cuts could devastate Alabama's economy - WAFF-TV: News, Weather and Sports for Huntsville, AL

Congress is demanding the Obama Administration spell out the painful details of a coming wave of budget cuts, which could hit extra hard in Huntsville.

A new bill demanding the particulars of the cuts overwhelmingly passed, with bi-partisan support, in both the U.S. House and Senate.

The automatic cuts are labeled a specific name: sequestration.

That is the consequence of what was supposed to be a deal last year to cut the federal deficit. The Sequestration Transparency Act passed in the Senate Wednesday night requiring a report on exactly what is supposed to be cut. Observers said if Congress can't head them off, it could push the country back into a recession – especially around Alabama.

Political analyst Waymon Burke said Huntsville is filled with employers whose lifeblood is working on America's national security and would be devastated if the cuts went into place.

"It affects home values. It affects teachers being hired, people working at the convenience store," he said.

Under last year's Budget Control Act, a congressional committee was supposed to reach a deal to cut the government's budget deficit or else huge budget cuts, sequestration, would hit on January 2nd.

In a statement, Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions said "If the sequester is not reorganized, defense spending will have to absorb half of the planned cuts, which the president's own defense secretary said would be 'disastrous for our national defense.'"

And, said Burke, for hundreds, maybe thousands of people who work in the defense industry, it would affect them, too.

Political observers expect some kind of deal can be hammered out sometime after the election, but here's the problem: businesses need to give workers notice, maybe 60 or even 90 days, before they're let go.

Burke said letting it get to the point where layoff notices start going out in September or October would be politically devastating to Republicans and Democrats, alike. The situation is also politically tough for the White House, which has opposed the Sequestration Transparency Act, but it passed by a margin wide enough to easily override if President Obama vetoes it.

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