BY JOSH LEDERMANAssociated Press

WASHINGTON — Sharing a bitof budget pain, President BarackObama will return 5 percent ofhis salary each month to theTreasury in a show of solidaritywith federal workers smartingfrom government-wide spendingcuts.

Obama’s decision grew out ofa desire to share in the sacrificethat government employees aremaking, a White House officialsaid Wednesday. Hundreds ofthousands of workers could beforced to take unpaid leave —known as furloughs — if Con-gress does not reach an agree-ment soon to undo the cuts.

The president is demonstrat-ing that he will be paying a price,too, as the White House warns ofdire economic consequencesfrom the $85 billion in cuts thatstarted to hit federal programslast month after Congress failedto stop them. In the weeks since,the administration has faced re-peated questions about how theWhite House itself will be af-fected. The cancellation of WhiteHouse tours in particular hasdrawn mixed reactions.

A 5 percent cut from the presi-dent’s salary of $400,000 per yearamounts to $1,667 per month.

The move will be retroactiveto March 1 — the day the cutsstarted to kick in — and will re-main in effect for the rest of fiscal2013, said the White House offi-cial, who was not authorized todiscuss the decision publicly andspoke on condition of anonymity.

The president and first ladyMichelle Obama reported almost$790,000 in adjusted gross in-come in 2011, the most recentyear for which their tax returnshave been made public. That fig-ure was down from the $1.7 mil-lion they brought in the yearbefore and the $5.5 million theyreported in 2009. About half ofthe family’s income in 2011 camefrom Obama’s salary, with therest coming from book sales. TheObamas reported more than$172,000 in charitable donations.

Wednesday’s notice followeda similar move a day earlier byDefense Secretary Chuck Hagel,who committed to taking a salarycut equal to 14 days’ pay — thesame level of cut that other De-fense Department civilians arebeing forced to take. As many as700,000 civilians will have to takeone unpaid day off each week forup to 14 weeks in the comingmonths.

Obama isn’t the first presidentto give up part of his paycheck.Herbert Hoover put his salary ina separate account, then divviedit up, giving part to charity andpart to employees he felt wereunderpaid, according to an inter-view he gave in 1937. John F.Kennedy donated his presiden-tial salary to various charities,according to Stacey Chandler, anarchivist at the John F. KennedyPresidential Library.

George Washington refusedpay during the latter part of hismilitary career, according to re-searchers at Mount Vernon. Hetried to refuse a presidentialsalary, but Congress requiredthat the position pay $25,000.

Among lawmakers, Sen. MarkBegich, an Alaska Democrat, saidWednesday that he, too, wouldreturn part of his income to theTreasury, although he did notspecify how much of his $174,000salary he would give up. Begichsaid his office started furloughingstaffers in mid-March and morethan half of his staff will havetheir pay cut this year.

“This won’t solve our spend-ing problem on its own, but Ihope it is a reminder to Alaskansthat I am willing to make thetough cuts, wherever they maybe, to get our spending undercontrol,” Begich said.

A number of lawmakers havefrom time to time taken steps toshow they’re not immune as thefederal government looks totighten its belt. An aide to SenateMinority Leader Mitch Mc-Connell, R-Ky., said McConnell re-turns a substantial part of hissalary to the Treasury everyyear. The Senate this monthadopted by voice vote a sym-bolic amendment permitting —but not requiring — senators togive 20 percent of their salariesto the Treasury as part of the De-mocrats’ budget resolution. Alsoin March, as the spending cutsstarted bearing down, the GOP-controlled House imposed an 8.2percent reduction on lawmakers’personal office budgets.

The White House, after declin-ing for weeks to provide specificsfor how the president’s own staffhad been affected, said Mondaythat 480 workers on the budgetstaff had been notified they mayhave to take days off without pay.

Obama’s press secretary, JayCarney, wouldn’t say whether no-tices have gone out to Obamaaides outside the Office of Man-agement and Budget, includingsenior staff in the West Wing. But

he said pay cuts remained a pos-sibility for additional WhiteHouse employees if a budget dealto undo the cuts isn’t reached.

“Everybody at the WhiteHouse and the broader (execu-tive office) is dealing with theconsequences — both, in manycases, in their own personallives, but in how we work here atthe White House,” Carney said.He added that the White Housealso has been trying to cut costsby slowing down hiring, scalingback supply purchases, curtail-ing staff travel, reducing the useof air cards for mobile Internetaccess and reviewing contractsto look for savings.

Like lawmakers’ pay, Obama’ssalary is set by law, so he mustaccept the funds and then write acheck to the Treasury for theportion he plans to relinquish.Obama’s decision, first reportedby The New York Times, won’t af-fect the other perquisites af-forded the president, from amansion staffed with servants tothe limousines, helicopters andBoeing 747 jumbo jet at everyU.S. president’s beck and call.The White House did not saywhether Vice President Joe Bidenwould make a similar gesture.

The 5 percent that Obama willhand back mirrors the 5 percentcut that domestic agencies tookwhen the reductions went into ef-fect. The Pentagon’s budget tookan 8 percent hit. Every federalagency is grappling with spend-ing cuts, which the White Househas warned could affect every-thing from commercial airlineflights to classrooms and meatinspections.

The cuts were written into a2011 deficit-reduction measure asa trigger to force future action.The idea was that lawmakers,eager to avert the consequencesof bluntly slashing $1 trillion overa decade, would have no choicebut to come together to findsmarter ways to reduce federalspending.

But the two parties were atodds over whether more tax rev-enues were needed as part of thesolution, and an intense cam-paign by Obama and his Cabinetto illustrate how the cuts couldaffect critical programs failed tospur an agreement by the March1 deadline. As the cuts startedtaking effect, lawmakers turnedto other issues, including an in-crease in the national debt ceil-ing, and there are no signs that adeal to undo the cuts retroac-tively will come anytime soon.

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NEWS DEPARTMENT: news@yankton.net 1414 PRESS DAKOTANthe worldFormal Charge Against NY Woman In Shooting

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A New York woman has been indictedon a charge she lied on a form while buying two guns authoritiessay a neighbor used two years later to ambush and kill firefighters.

Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley says a grandjury indicted Dawn Nguyen on Wednesday on one count of falsify-ing business records.

Nguyen initially was arrested in December and faces similar fed-eral charges. She previously pleaded not guilty.

Defense lawyer Matthew Parrinello says Wednesday’s actionwas expected and Nguyen will remain free pending arraignment.

Authorities say Nguyen bought a rifle and a shotgun for felonWilliam Spengler in 2010 but said they were for her.

Spengler killed two firefighters and wounded two others as theyresponded to his burning Webster home Christmas Eve. He thenkilled himself.

Obama To Return 5 Percent Of Salary

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Connecticut ExpectedTo Approve Sweeping

Gun RestrictionsHARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Con-

necticut lawmakers were expectedto approve sweeping new restric-tions on weapons and large-capac-ity magazines Wednesday, aresponse to the Newtown schoolshooting that will give the statesome of the country’s tightest gun-control laws.

The December massacre of 26people inside Sandy Hook Elemen-tary School, which reignited a na-tional debate on gun control, setthe stage for changes here that mayhave been impossible elsewhere:The governor, who personally in-formed parents that their childrenhad been killed that day, champi-oned the cause, and legislativeleaders, keenly aware of the atten-tion on the state, struck a biparti-san agreement they want to serveas a national model.

The legislation adds more than100 firearms to the state’s assaultweapons ban and creates what offi-cials have called the nation’s firstdangerous weapon offender reg-istry as well as eligibility rules forbuying ammunition. Some parts ofthe bill will take effect immediately,including background checks for allfirearms sales

Connecticut will join states in-cluding California, New York, NewJersey and Massachusetts in havingthe country’s strongest gun-controllaws, said Brian Malte, director ofmobilization for the Brady Cam-paign to Prevent Gun Violence inWashington.