U.S. lawmakers: Sequestration cuts more difficult in second year

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (UPI) -- U.S. House and Senate budget negotiators said the United States can't handle a second year of sequestration cuts.

Legislators are scheduled to meet Wednesday to devise a spending plan for the upcoming fiscal year, but said tightening budgets for a second year in a row will be more difficult than the first year, The New York Times reported.

After across-the-board federal spending cuts earlier this year, government departments deferred maintenance, used unspent money from earlier years and cut staff by attrition to handle the loss of funding. But next year, those tricks may not work, Rep. Frank R. Wolf, R-Va., warned.

"It was kind of like when you go through your drawers and your pants pockets and you collect the dimes -- you can't do that again," he said. "The second year will be much more difficult."

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., said negotiators should think small.

"If we focus on doing something big, 'grand bargainesque,' we will fail," he said Thursday. We "should aim for the achievable."