Senate Budget Committee Chairman Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) have released a two-year budget plan that would extend sequestration cuts through 2023.
A 29-member bipartisan panel led by Sen. Murray and Rep. Ryan crafted the proposal, titled the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2013. The budget plan would increase the limits on discretionary spending for fiscal year 2014 from $4.98 billion under current law to $5.2 billion for defense and from $4.69 billion to $4.92 billion for non-defense spending. In fiscal year 2015, the proposal authorizes an increase in discretionary defense spending from $5.12 billion to $5.21 billion, as well as increasing the cap on non-defense spending from $4.83 billion to $4.92 billion.
The budget also includes $28 billion in spending cuts over 10 years by requiring the president to maintain sequestration cuts in 2022 and 2023, maintaining the reductions at the same percentage of budgetary resources that will be cut in 2021 in accordance with current law.
The proposal has already drawn criticism from the Federal of American Hospitals. FAH President Chip Kahn has released a statement saying the agreement "sustains bad budget policy" by maintaining and extending "arbitrary Medicare sequester cuts." He wrote members of Congress should oppose the budget deal because it threatens Medicare beneficiaries' access to care.
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