Whitney Burdette
The State Journal
A pro-military think tank has issued a report attempting to estimate the effects cuts to defense spending could have on local economies, and the outlook isn’t good.
The Coalition for the Common Defense looked at defense contractors in each congressional district to determine how, $500 billion proposed cuts to defense spending under sequestration would affect local economies. According to a news release, the organization’s goal with the Congressional District Reports is to help local officials and businesses prepare for the possible impact of job losses and economic harm to local communities from the sequestration budget cuts. The reports provide a 2011 baseline to see how congressional districts could be affected by the planned across-the-board sequestration cuts in the 2013 defense budget.
The sequestration defense budget cuts will be an estimated total of 18 percent or more when combined with earlier budget cuts, according to the news release.
To build the reports, information was derived from public data at the Federal Procurement Data System based on queries from www.governmentcontractswon.com and combined with public zip code data linked on congressional districts.
The report for each district can be viewed at http://forthecommondefense.org/reports/.
This article can be read here: http://www.statejournal.com/story/19536691/cuts-to-defense-spending-could-affect-local-economies
