Defense Week Ahead: Lobbyists Reveal Spending to Thwart Cuts

David Lerman
Bloomberg Government
January 17, 2012

(Bloomberg) — After a year consumed by talk of deep budget cuts, defense companies and their lobbying firms will disclose this week how much they spent trying to protect vulnerable weapons programs.

The fourth-quarter disclosure reports, due on Jan. 20, will tote up how much contractors spent lobbying to avert defense cuts as a congressional “supercommittee” tried — and failed – – to cut future spending by $1.2 trillion over a decade.

That failure triggered automatic cuts to most defense programs, which, when combined with already planned cuts, would reduce future spending plans by almost $1 trillion over the next decade unless Congress overturns the plan.

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