How budget cuts could affect you

Agencies are already taking steps to comply with cuts scheduled to take effect Friday.

After defense, health care will take the biggest hit in the cuts. The sequester — $85 billion in automatic cuts to federal spending — appears likely to have a disproportionate effect on areas of the system already hobbled by years of retrenchment or underfunding, including public health and medical research.

Although the Medicare program will account for the largest chunk of dollars cut from health care — about $100 billion over a decade — because of its size, the 2 percent reduction in its payments to doctors and hospitals is significantly smaller than what many public health and research programs face.

Labs at major universities and medical centers are already laying off scientists. And local public health officials, hit by years of cutbacks, are scaling back immunization campaigns and other efforts to track and control infectious diseases. Also threatened are initiatives sparked by public health crises such as mass shootings — which have generated calls for strengthening the nation's mental health system — and outbreaks of foodborne illness.

A Health and Human Services Department spokesman said the agency would be sending general notifications Friday to those who rely on federal money. More specific instructions will follow. The agency is expected to cut about $15.5 billion from its overall spending.

One of the Navy's premier warships, the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, sits pier-side in Norfolk, Va., its tour of duty delayed. The carrier and its 5,000-person crew were to leave for the Persian Gulf on Feb. 8, along with the guided-missile cruiser USS Gettysburg.

Veterans' funerals at Arlington National Cemetery could be cut to 24 a day from 31, meaning delays in burials for troops from past wars. Troops killed in action in Afghanistan will be the priority; they are usually laid to rest within two weeks, Army spokesman George Wright said. But overall funerals would be reduced by about 160 a month because of furloughs among civilian employees who work with families to schedule services as well as furloughs among crews that dig the grave.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been freed from jail across the country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials say they had reviewed several hundred cases of immigrants and decided to put them on an "appropriate, more cost-effective form of supervised release" in a move that started Tuesday.

There could be an estimated 2,100 fewer food safety inspections and increased risks to consumers because of the cuts and the fact that the Food and Drug Administration is held at last year's spending level if it lacks a 2013 budget. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said most of the effects wouldn't be felt for a while, and the agency won't have to furlough workers.

The nation's busiest airports could be forced to close some of their runways, causing widespread flight delays and cancellations. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood predicted flights to such cities as New York, Chicago and San Francisco could have delays of up to 90 minutes during peak hours because fewer controllers will be on duty. Though the spending cuts are scheduled to go into effect on Friday, furloughs of controllers won't kick in until April because the Federal Aviation Administration is required by law to give its employees advance notice. In addition to furloughs, the FAA is planning to eliminate midnight shifts for air traffic controllers at 60 airport towers, close over 100 control towers at smaller airports and reduce preventive maintenance of equipment.

Visiting hours at all 398 national parks are likely to be cut and sensitive areas would be blocked off to the public. Thousands of seasonal workers looking for jobs would not be hired, according to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. National Park Service director Jon Jarvis and Salazar said visitors would encounter locked restrooms, fewer rangers and trash cans emptied less frequently.

More than half of the nation's 2.1 million government workers may be required to take furloughs if agencies are forced to trim budgets. At the Pentagon alone, that could mean 800,000 civilian workers would be off for 22 days each, spread across more than five months — and lose 20 percent of their pay over that period. Other federal agencies are likely to furlough several hundred thousand more workers.

Congressional trips overseas likely will take a hit. House Speaker John Boehner told Republican members in a closed-door meeting that he's suspending the use of military aircraft for official trips by House members. Lawmakers typically travel on military planes for fact-finding trips to Afghanistan or Pakistan, or other congressional excursions to foreign locales.