With Congress out of session in observance for the President’s Day district work period, I was excited to get to travel around Arkansas this week. My travels included stops at the Little Rock Air Force Base, AETN, Verizon’s regional headquarters in Little Rock and the University of Arkansas.  

• AETN “Arkansas Week” airs tonight:  Earlier this week, I sat down with Steve Barnes to tape an episode of "Arkansas Week." That episode airs tonight on AETN at 6:30 pm central. Please tune in to watch our discussion, much of which focuses on sequestration. 

• Sequestration: The automatic across-the-board cuts known as sequestration are set to begin on March 1^st if Washington does not act to stop them. While I believe cutting spending is essential to putting our country on the path to fiscal responsibility, indiscriminately cutting everything is not the best policy. We don’t need to take a meat cleaver to our entire budget. I am committed to holding the line on reducing government spending, but there is a more practical way to eliminate expenses that better utilize taxpayer dollars.
  
  The House has passed two bills to avoid sequestration, but the Senate Majority refused to bring them up for a vote. Majority Leader Reid recently put forward his caucus’s proposal to avoid the across-the-board cuts, but it is deeply flawed. 

• Some tips to make your Spring Break travel easier: If you are planning an international trip in March or April, U.S. Passport officials strongly recommend paying the extra fee to expedite your passport. A standard application is taking six weeks or longer to process. An expedited application is usually two weeks. Learn how we can help here.