Report: Green jobs survey a sequester casualty

Automatic budget cuts have claimed an early casualty: The Bureau of Labor Statistics tossed a program Friday that monitored green jobs in the United States, according to Bloomberg.

The $85 billion of spending reductions, known as sequestration, are scheduled to go into effect Friday. Government agencies are currently readying plans — which could include furloughs, scrapping programs and other measures — to cope with the cuts.

Congress does not appear near a deal to replace the sequester with different cuts. Republicans want to rely solely on spending reductions to offset the sequester, while President Obama and Democrats prefer a mix of cuts and tax increases.

The green jobs initiative is one of three Bureau of Labor Statistics data reports slated for the chopping block, Bloomberg reported. 

Republicans have long criticized the effort, saying its definition of a green job is too loose.

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has been particularly critical of the program, calling it a White House “propaganda tool.” He contends the green jobs tracker has oversold employment in that sector.

Issa labeled it as an attempt to justify the $90 billion in loans, tax incentives and grants President Obama set aside for clean-energy and transportation programs through the 2009 federal stimulus

But clean-energy advocates contend the industry is going through a period of rapid growth, crediting the president’s policies and the stimulus for many of those gains.

Still, those employment figures will fall far short of Obama’s 2008 campaign pledge to add 5 million green energy jobs in a decade, a point Republicans have been quick to make.