I have a friend who is a captain in the Coast Guard, and he had a planned trip to London for meetings there. He's in charge of the branch of the Coast Guard that oversees port security, including international supply chain stuff. I was talking briefly with him last night at a concert our kids were putting on, and he said the London trip had been cancelled due to the sequester. I suppose he can make phone calls and send emails instead of doing those meetings in London, but I think there is something lost when government leaders don't talk to their colleagues face to face once in awhile.
I could give you half a dozen similar stories from various friends I have here in Arlington. Mostly they are making cuts like this that aren't super painful but that do slightly harm the mission of these government agencies.
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