Sequestration on the Hi-Line

With across-the-board federal budget cuts now assured, officials in north-central Montana are making similar comments — most everything in the region will be impacted, but it still is too early to know exactly what will happen.

"What are we expecting by sequestration?" Hill County Commission Chair Mike Wendland said in an interview last week. "We really don't know."

The automatic cuts, known as a sequester, were put in place in 2011 as part of negotiations by a joint U.S. House and Senate committee tasked with reducing the deficit. Because the committee, called the Supercommittee, could not co...