Fort Riley is in better shape as a result of the recent two-year bipartisan  budget agreement in Congress than without it, but Senator Jerry Moran said Saturday the budget is being reduced on the backs of military retirees.

Moran talked with JCPost.com after a Town Hall meeting in Grandview Plaza. “There’s no question that because Geary County, the Fort Riley area has so many retirees, in numbers here the people are going to be impacted.”

Moran noted there is good news. “The elimination of sequestration, additional money for defense spending, means that Fort Riley will be under less fiscal pressures. It ought to be a little bit more ease in the way things are budgeted…no furloughs, that kind of thing.” But Moran added Congress could have “found ways to do that without affecting military retirees. ”

On specific cuts that could impact military retirees the monthly numbers are not yet known. “The goal by many members of Congress, including me, is to solve the problem before it actually takes effect. Because it doesn’t occur until 2015,  and so that gives Congress a year to find some other way of funding the increased spending in the budget.”

Moran addressed issues and responded to questions from the public during the Town Hall meeting at Stacy’s Restaurant Saturday morning.