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DEFENSE & NATIONAL SECURITY

The US Armed Forces have been particularly hard hit by the 10% across-the-board sequestration cut that was implemented in Fiscal Year 2013 in response to the White House and Congressional inability to agree on an alternative strategy to reduce the national debt. These painful cuts came at a time when the Armed Forces were engaged in two major overseas deployments and already working to implement a $100 billion ten-year spending reduction as mandated by then Defense Secretary, Robert Gates. A similar series of harsh spending reductions threaten in Fiscal Year 2018. Some members of the House and Senate have voiced their dismay at this treatment of the nation’s military. However, even if a broad budgetary agreement can be reached and “sequestration II” avoided, the fiscal environment of the Pentagon will remain very tight.