In Today’s Times
- President Obama’s trip to the Newport News shipyard in Virginia on Tuesday was intended to draw attention to the automatic budget cuts beginning Friday, which officials say would have a far bigger financial impact at home than abroad, Michael D. Shear and Thom Shanker report.  Mr. Obama warned that private companies doing contract work for the military could begin to shed jobs amid an overall loss of economy activity.
- The cuts will only accelerate what are already considered unusually severe cutbacks by the federal government, the nation’s largest consumer and investor, Binyamin Appelbaum reports.
- Federal immigration officials have arranged for hundreds of detainees to receive a supervisd release in another highly unusual effort to save money as the so-called sequester cuts loom in Washington, Kirk Semple writes. Republicans called it a political gambit by the Obama administration that jeopardizes public safety and undermines negotiations over comprehensive immigration reform.
- The Senate confirmed Chuck Hagel as defense secretary on Tuesday, approving him by the smallest margin for a defense secretary since the position was created, Jeremy W. Peters reports. Mr. Hagel’s confirmation, along with the bipartisan support for Jack J. Lew to become Treasury secretary, suggests that the Republican blockade against the administration’s second-term nominees is beginning to ease.
Happenings in Washington
- Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will speak with Mayor Michael Bloomberg of New York and to the National Association of Attorneys General about reducing gun violence. Later, he and his wife, Jill Biden, will host a Black History Month reception at the Naval Observatory.
