MAKING IT HURT: FAA Blames Cuts for Tower Closings as Sen. Cries Foul

Published March 22, 2013

Associated Press

The Federal Aviation Administration says it will close 149 air traffic control towers at small airports around the country because of federal budget cuts. 

The agency announced the decision Friday, a month after it released a preliminary list of facilities that could be closed. 

All of the affected airports will remain open. Pilots will be left to coordinate takeoffs and landings among themselves over a shared radio frequency with no help from ground controllers. That's something they are trained to do, but airport directors have raised concerns about the potential impact on safety. 

In an accompanying statement, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta says the agency will take steps to ensure safe operations at the affected airports.

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MAKING IT HURT: Students feel cuts' burn despite inaction on fraud

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  Students walk on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) campus in this file photo.REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson

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  Students receiving federal financial aid recently received this letter informing them of an increase due to Sequester-related budget cuts.

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The effects of the sequester have spread to the hallowed halls of education.

Both graduate students and the parents of undergrads have been quietly receiving letters from the federal Department of Education. The letters say the fees on their Direct PLUS loans from the government are being raised as a direct result of the automatic budget cuts that kicked in this month because Congress and the White House couldn't come to a fiscal agreement.

“On August 2, 2011, Congress passed the Budget Control Act of 2011, which put into place automatic federal budget cuts, known as the 'sequester.' While this law does not otherwise change the amount or terms or conditions of your Direct Loan, it does raise loan fees on Direct PLUS Loans first disbursed after March 1, 2013,” reads a copy of the letter obtained by FoxNews.com.

“If I managed our budget like Washington did, my family would be out on the street.”

- Kansas resident Russell Schroeder

“Specifically, the fee on your loan will increase from 4.0 percent of your loan amount to 4.204 percent. For example, the fee on a $10,000 PLUS loan will increase by $20.40 from $400.00 to $420.40,” the letter continues.

While the increase is slight, many families will still have to tighten belts on already strained budgets, and some feel that they are being punished for a stalemate between Democrats and Republicans in Washington.

“The lack of action on both sides is an atrocity,” Kansas resident Russell Schroeder, who currently has two daughters in college and received the letter, told FoxNews.com. “Everyone talks about bipartisanship, but no one gives an inch. ...

“If I managed our budget like Washington did, my family would be out on the street.”

Critics of the recent cutbacks across the country as a result of the sequester say that the cuts could have been avoided by cutting back on wasteful spending.

A recent congressional report suggests that federal agencies could have saved over $65 billion in 2012 had they listened to the audit recommendations of their respective inspectors general.

In an oversight committee meeting last week, the Department of Education’s inspector general, Kathleen Tighe, testified that there were “longstanding challenges” in the department’s response to audits, which have identified nearly $200 million in federal student aid fraud since 2009.

And the unnecessary spending seems to be across the board. In spring 2012, the Government Accountability Office released a series of reports that pointed out programs with excessive costs that could be cut and, in turn, enhance revenue in the billions.

Schroeder says that even the little increase on an already high loan will make staying within a family budget tough.

“With inflation, this adds up. Five years ago, $25 bought you four bags of groceries," he said. "Now, you’re lucky if it will buy you one bag. ...

“We are getting into a desperate time. Every penny we have to spend on something is precious.”

The sequester-related loan fee hike comes at a time when student loan debt has become a hefty strain on family households. It has surpassed credit card debt in 2010, with Americans owing about $1 trillion and 13 percent of borrowers defaulting on their loans.

And the cuts could affect students even more in the coming academic year, with a 5 percent cut on funding for federal work study and supplemental education programs.

“The cut will come from the overall pool of funding, so many schools will receive less funding and many of them are going to be given a smaller piece of the pot,” Megan McCleare, director of policy and federal relations for the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, told FoxNews.com. “Schools are sending out award letters to students saying they have been accepted, but the number will be lower by the time they start. ...

“Students are making decisions now with figures that will be less at the start of the next academic year.”

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MAKING IT HURT: WH Staffers Raking in Big Bucks Despite Cuts

After closing the doors to public tours in an effort to save money, White House officials haven't yet said if sequester cuts will result in furloughs or layoffs for its senior staffers -- as is happening with rank-and-file in other executive branch agencies. 

But there are dozens of senior employees and other presidential "assistants" to choose from if the administration were to look at cutting the six-figure salaries from its payroll. 

In the field of energy and climate change alone, President Obama in 2012 employed three advisers making at least $100,000 -- though one has since left. 

The president kept on staff a "deputy assistant" for energy and climate change, Heather Zichal, making $140,000; a "special assistant" for energy and environment, Nathaniel Keohane; and a "deputy director" for energy and climate change, Dan Utech. 

Together, their salaries totaled over $370,000 last year, according to White House records. 

Climate blogger Steven Goddard said it's unlikely the administration will scale back its circle of advisers, at least on this issue. 

"It's a very important point to his political base," Goddard said. "Whether he believes it or not himself, he has to make the effort to appear that he's working on controlling the climate." 

Zichal, who previously worked in the 2008 Obama campaign, during the president's first term helped craft administration policy on fuel economy standards and mercury pollution regulations. Keohane worked via his post on the White House Domestic Policy Council. Keohane left the White House last year to join the Environmental Defense Fund. 

The White House is being scrutinized after a decision -- driven in large part by Secret Service staffing considerations -- to end public tours of the "people's house." That decision took effect this past weekend, outraging lawmakers and spurned tourists alike. 

While that decision freed up money in the Secret Service budget, some are waiting to see what the White House will do to show sacrifice on its end. 

The latest 2012 salary figures released by the White House show 20 staffers were making the maximum $172,200. Many of them are well-known President Obama aides, including Press Secretary Jay Carney and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett. Most carry the title of "assistant to the president." 

But underneath them are dozens of "deputy" assistants and "special" assistants to the president, most making six-figure salaries -- like the climate change advisers. A review of the 2012 salaries by FoxNews.com shows 139 White House staffers making $100,000 or more. 

The White House often attracts top-tier lawyers, bankers, security experts and others who were making far more in the private sector. Any administration wants to offer good money in order to lure the right people into -- or back into -- public service. 

But the payroll under the Obama White House has expanded since the Bush administration. The payroll went from $33 million in 2008 to $39 million in 2009. Since then, the Obama administration has scaled back its White House staff expenses, but the payroll was still at $37.8 million in 2012. 

There are two more employees making the maximum salary now than in the final year of the Bush administration. Two ethics advisers each make close to $140,000. 

The chief calligrapher makes $96,725. Another calligrapher makes over $94,000, while another makes close to $86,000. 

On Friday, White House Deputy Press Secretary John Earnest said the White House will be affected by the sequester much like other agencies -- and in some capacity will impose furloughs. 

"We're also faced with making some tough decisions when it comes to ongoing projects, when it comes to purchasing equipment and supplies. But we're also a pretty personnel-heavy agency, if you will. So that means ... there will be employees of components who work here at the White House that will be facing pay cuts, that will be facing furloughs," he said.

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MAKING IT HURT:Ranger: Bosses Pushed Cuts Visitors Would See

Another federal employee has come forward to claim the Obama administration resisted efforts to ease the impact of sequester.

A U.S. park ranger, who did not wish to be identified, told FoxNews.com that supervisors within the National Park Service overruled plans to deal with the budget cuts in a way that would have had minimal impact on the public. Instead, the source said, park staff were told to cancel special events and cut "interpretation services" -- the talks, tours and other education services provided by local park rangers.

"Apparently, they want the public to feel the pain," the ranger said.

The National Park Service is among many federal agencies warning of a major impact from the sequester cuts, which took effect last Friday. The agency has warned of delayed access to portions of Yellowstone and Yosemite national parks, closed campgrounds at Great Smoky Mountains National Park, reduced hours at the Grand Canyon visitor center and other ramifications.

The Obama administration says these cuts must be made in order to make the $85 billion in cuts from Congress' failure to avert the sequester. At the NPS, the agency was dealing with an across-the-board 5 percent cut.

Republicans have claimed the administration is making some cuts in order to exaggerate the impact. Lawmakers this past week revealed a leaked email from the Agriculture Department in which a field officer appeared to tell his team that he was instructed not to contradict the bosses' warnings about the cuts.

At the Park Service, the alleged incident occurred in one region and it's unclear whether other divisions were given similar guidance.

But a Park Service spokesman told FoxNews.com he's "never heard of guidance given like that."

The spokesman said that like other agencies, the Park Service was absorbing a 5 percent cut in just seven months. It was also being forced to cut seasonal employees, which make up a big part of the department's labor costs. Doing this, he explained, would impact "interpretive programs and public events."

But he denied the claim there was any directive to make those cuts more visible to the public.   

"There's not a ton of flexibility," he said, noting that most cuts will end up impacting visitors at some level. "Everything in parks is geared toward either the preservation of the resources or the needs of the visitors."

Joan Anzelmo, a former park superintendent in Colorado, also said that while it's possible one specific location was giving guidance to make sure the public sees the cuts, she doesn't think that was happening across the country. She also said any cuts to services and staffing would be made in large part because the parks budgets do not have much "wiggle room."

"I would be hard pressed to be able to make those cuts as a superintendent and not have an impact to the public," said Anzelmo, now a spokeswoman for The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees.

Nonetheless, memos have surfaced from National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis appearing to show the agency put a priority on telling the public how the cuts would affect them.

One Jan. 25 memo, which was obtained and published by the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees, showed Jarvis directing regional directors to carefully explain the "specific and tangible results" of the cuts as they submitted their cost-saving plans.

Jarvis wrote that agency officials expected the cuts to result in reduced visitor services, shortened seasons and other visible changes. "Parks must be specific in their description and include the number of visitors affected and an indication of the effect on nearby communities and businesses," he wrote. "All other organizations should describe impacts in terms of diminished performance and reduced administrative services and oversight."

Another memo, dated Feb. 26, railed against the "senseless, across-the-board budget cuts." Jarvis, in that memo, described "long-term and wide-ranging effects," while pledging to try to "mitigate" the impact.

The ranger who spoke to FoxNews.com, though, stressed that it was still just a 5 percent cut.

"It's obvious that they want the public to feel the pain in order to push this agenda that Washington wants," the ranger said. "A lot of these parks can absorb these cuts without the public's visit being affected."

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