GOP Senators are brainstorming ways to avoid upcoming sequestration cuts to the Pentagon budget, including forming working groups from both chambers of Congress to hammer out a plan.
In six months, automatic cuts to the federal budget, including the Department of Defense, are scheduled to go into effect per the Budget Control Act.
The Hill reports:
On Friday, House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said the idea of the working groups has also been informally discussed among Democrats in both chambers, including Senate Armed Services Committee chief Carl Levin (D-Mich.). …
A group of 15 to 30 senators have been drafting sequestration alternatives behind closed doors for the past month, but those talks have largely remained on the Democrat-controlled Senate side.
Bringing in House members via the working groups could hasten those informal Senate talks into a tangible, bipartisan solution that can be brought to the White House.