The automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration have begun and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is raising concerns about the potential impact on Vermonters.
Programs including Head Start, low income heating assistance, education, heath care and public safety face significant funding losses due to sequestration. On Monday, low income advocates met with Senator Sanders in Burlington to discuss statewide impacts.
Southeastern Vermont Community Action Executive Director Steve Geller explains that as many as 45-hundred Vermont households could lose assistance due to the federal cuts.
Vermont’s Head Start programs face a five-percent cut. Central Vermont Community Action Council Head Start Director Marianne Miller notes that is based on annual grants.
Sanders, a member of the Senate Budget Committee, said there are alternatives to sequestration that must be passed.
Senator Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, is working with the budget committee on a 10-year budget plan that he says would replace the sequestration.
The 10 year budget bill should move to the Senate floor later this month.
