Due to disagreements in Congress over the nation’s fiscal situation, $1 trillion in automatic budget cuts, known as sequestration, began across the board for all federally funded programs at the beginning of this month.Because of the sweeping cuts, the Department of Defense suspended its Military Tuition Assistance Program.According to Terra McBride, Point Park director of social media and public relations, this program cut will not affect students covered by the G.I. Bill, which is funded by the Department of Veterans affairs. In a breakdown of the effects of the sequester, the White House website confirms that the Department of Veterans Affairs is “exempt from sequestration.”McBride said only a few students who attend Point Park benefit from the Military Tuition Assistance Program, which previously provided active-duty service members with money towards their tuition with a per semester hour cap of $250 and a fiscal year cap of $4,500.“Active-duty service members who currently attend or would like to attend Point Park University may be eligible for other federal and state aid programs,” McBride said in an email interview. “Staff in the Office of Financial Aid will work with students to explore all available financial aid options.”Cuts will continue to be made nationally to programs such as education, FBI and law enforcement and Social Security benefits. According to the White House website, these cuts will affect children, the elderly, the mentally ill and military personnel and lead to the cut of thousands of dollars.Congress created the bill, drafted in 2011, was created to force members to come together and make a bi-partisan decision on spending cuts to reach the goal of reducing the federal deficit by $4 trillion, under the assumption that these cuts are in neither side’s interest.“That was the – I use this term facetiously –genius in the design of the sequester — it was written in a way to make it terrible,” said United States Press Secretary Jay Carney during a briefing on March 14. “That was the purpose. Republicans and Democrats alike wrote it that way so that it would be so onerous that it would compel Congress to take alternative action to reduce our deficit in a more responsible way.”