Feb 28, 2013 3 min read

The Allegheny Ludlum plant in Canton Township produces armor plate for a variety of defense applications, but its parent company doesn’t foresee much of an impact if sequestration takes effect today.

In fact, companies and the university provider of a longtime service to help local businesses obtain government contracts said this week they were taking a wait-and-see approach to scheduled cuts to the federal budget before determining the impact on their operations.

Sequestration, a series of automatic, across-the-board cuts to government agencies, totaling $1.2 trillion over 10 years, would be split 50-50 between defense and domestic discretionary spending.

The process, which has put President Obama and many members of Congress at odds, is an attempt to get a handle on the growth of the U.S. national debt, which exploded upward when the 2007 recession hit and now stands at more than $16 trillion. The sequester has been coming for more than a year, with Congress pushing it back to March 1 as part of the fiscal cliff deal at the end of the last session.

But the scope of the impact remains to be seen locally.

Besides armor plate, Allegheny Technologies Inc.’s Allegheny Ludlum Washington Specialty Plate plant produces titanium and other specialty metals from uses in commercial airliners made by Airbus and Boeing to applications in chemical processing plants.

ATI spokesman Dan Greenfield said Wednesday that the product output for the defense sector pales in comparison to the plant’s products made for other industries.

Greenfield said some of the biggest current production at the local plant goes to the global oil and gas and chemical processing industries.

“We don’t really think that whatever happens with sequestration is going to impact our business directly,” Greenfield said, stating that government contracts are “a pretty small percentage” of ATI’s total business.

For more than a quarter of a century, the Government Agency Coordination Office at California University of Pennsylvania has provided local businesses with technical assistance in pursuing federal, state and local government contracting opportunities.

Since 1985, GACO, which has a client base of 1,600 businesses, has assisted local companies in obtaining more than $2.9 billion in contracts.

The office holds several educational and training seminars during the year, as well as procurement fairs to provide local business people an opportunity to meet face-to-face with government purchasing agents.

GACO director Deborah Wojcik said Thursday she intends to maintain the status quo regarding her office’s work.

“Until we see the specific effects of the sequester – exactly where any cuts in federal funding might be made – we are continuing to work with our contractors as usual,” Wojcik said in a statement.

Cal U. spokeswoman Christine Kindl said the university is also watching the advent of sequestration and its impact on federal student aid.

“Financial aid is one crucial area where federal funding directly affects our university and our students,” Kindl said in an email. “I’m told that the sequester will not affect this year’s awards, but – should a budget solution not be forthcoming – it could have an impact by making fewer federal aid dollars available for students in the 2013-2014 academic year.”

It was unknown Thursday how sequestration would impact the local operations of Progeny Systems, which does a variety of work on military projects.

At Progeny, which has an office in Alta Vista Business park near Bentleyville, the focus is on providing technology to several different business areas, including submarine systems, unmanned underwater vehicle systems, surveillance systems and torpedoes.

Progeny founder and Chief Executive Officer Walt Kitonis was not available for comment Thursday.