If Congress can't agree on a national budget by Friday, automatic spending cuts will take effect, delivering a hard hit to the military.
As the deadline draws near, more military families and civilian employees have questions about how the sequester might affect them.
So today the Army hosted a live chat on it's Twitter feed.
The three main topics were impact on soldier training, civilian furloughs, and how they could affect programs and services to military families.
"I'm concerned about retirement pay," says Tamma Ruth.
After 23 years as an Army wife, Tamma is intently tuning into the buzz over automatic spending cuts.
She says, "My husband has served, and been in Iraq, and been in harm's way for a long time, and I think he deserves to have his full military retirement."
So she posed the question to the U.S. Army during its live sequestration chat Wednesday.
The response was a relief.
The Army tweeted back, "Retiree pay is exempt from sequestration."
And whether headed overseas or home to their families, soldiers are worried too.
SPC Mark Washburn, an Army mechanic soon to be in Afghanistan, says, "My main concern is we're not going to have the gear we need to get our mission done, and it's going to get us killed."
"Probably our paychecks, also the family member medical services, things like that," says CAPT Paul Lee, as he lists off his main concerns.
Military pay and allowances are protected, though there is a proposal to cut pay raises nearly in half as part of the budget plan.
And Tamma hopes lawmakers can agree on some sort of plan.
"We're tired of them playing games with our lives," said Tamma.
Now that the chat is over, the Army's Twitter page is a great place to go for information.
Reporter: Sophia Stamas sstamas@kcentv.com
Photographer: Chris Buford cbuford@kcentv.com
