Fort Gordon Threatened By Delayed Sequester's Scheduled Defense Cuts

About $1 trillion in across the board cuts, known as the sequester, were scheduled for January 2nd. Congress's fiscal cliff deal postponed that deadline two months. Now, if Washington leaders don't reach a deal on a different way to cut spending by March, the scheduled cuts will slash ten percent from the Department of Defense.

Congressman John Barrow voted against Washington's fiscal cliff solution because he doesn't believe it tackled the issue of debt reduction.

“The effect of postponing this issue another couple months is it leaves our defense establishment, Fort Gordon, Fort Stuart and alike in limbo,” Barrow told NBC 26. “They don't know whether or not they're going to have to cut back on what they're doing."

During this time of limbo, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta is forming a plan in case the sequester hits, forcing the Pentagon to cut about $500 billion over the next decade.

"These actions should include having to curtail facility maintenance for non-mission critical activities, freezing civilian hiring, delaying certain contract awards,” said Panetta.

He's also ordered the Pentagon to start planning for unpaid furlough days of civilians. 

"We have no idea what the hell's going to happen,” Panetta said. “All told, this uncertainty if left unresolved by the Congress will seriously harm our military readiness."

Barrow said if Congress makes cuts based on merit, instead of this across the board approach, Fort Gordon could be saved.

“We've got a plan right now in place that's going to cut ten percent out of the brain and central nervous system of our defense, that's Fort Gordon,” explained the congressman.

Barrow went on to say that he's cautiously optimistic a deal will be reached this time around, because of all the new faces in Congress since the last vote took place.