President Barack Obama on Tuesday is scheduled to deliver remarks urging congressional action to avoid the raft of automatic budget cuts slated to take effect next week, the White House announced.
Obama will give the speech at 10:45 a.m. ET in the South Court Auditorium of the White House and is expected to call on Republicans on Capitol Hill to agree to a compromise. He will be joined by emergency responders, “the kinds of working Americans whose jobs are on the line if Congressional Republicans fail to compromise on a balanced solution,” as a White House official characterized them in the announcement.
“If these cuts go into effect, hundreds of thousands of jobs could be lost and middle class families all across the nation will feel the devastating impact; FEMA would need to eliminate funding for State and local grants that support firefighter positions and State and local emergency management personnel, hampering our ability to respond to natural disasters and other emergencies,” the White House official said.
Those cuts, known as the sequester, will hit defense and non-defense discretionary spending on March 1 unless a budget deal is struck by Congress.
