Automatic budget cuts loom as Congress fails to trim deficit

Science : Automatic, across-the-board budget cutsâmdash;called sequestrationâmdash;will take place in 2013 unless the US Congress manages to agree on how to reduce the federal debt over the next decade. Government science funding programsâmdash;including the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NSFâmdash;could see their budgets cut by as much as 8.2%. Sequestration, which most administration officials agree is a drastic measure, was never intended to be implemented; it was merely the result of a political deal in 2011 to enable Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling.