Angry lawmakers sensing politics at play with sequester cuts may overturn Defense Department decisions to shut down its tuition assistance program.
The only reason Defense canceled the benefit plan for military members was due to pressure from the White House to make the sequester fallout seem as bad as possible, said Sen. James Inhofe, according to Politico.
“The president wants Americans to feel the pain of the arbitrary across-the-board budget cuts from sequestration, but to cut off promised education assistance for our service members when there are other, lower-priority spending programs to draw from is an injustice,” the Oklahoma Republican said.
The military tuition plans let members of the military attend school while on active duty, as\o long as the courses don’t interfere in mission-oriented training and tasks. Marines, Army and Air Force officials are set to drop the program, at least for the remaining months of this fiscal year.
Republicans aren’t the only ones expressing outrage.
Sen. Kay Hagan, North Carolina Democrat, called the decision “alarming” and hurtful to troops, Politico reports. She has teamed with Mr. Inhofe to introduce a measure to restore the funding.
SEE ALSO: Pentagon has spent billions on doomed programs; cash looms large with budget cuts
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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