Obama Signs Sequester Order, Parties Say They Won't Continue Fight into Federal Government Shutdown

President Barack Obama signed an order to begin automatic federal spending cuts Friday, as the deadline arrived and Congress headed home for the weekend without reaching a deal to avoid sequestration.

Obama decried the cuts during a half-hour press conference at the White House. Federal defense and services spending will be cut by $85 billion over the remainder of the year.As one of the largest defense-centric states, Florida is bracing to be hit with the consequences.

The next fiscal challenge on lawmakers' radar is to avoid a federal government shutdown. Both parties, The New York Times reports, have agreed not to carry the deadlock into negotiations to fund the government through Sept. 30.

With a March 27 deadline to pass the funding bill, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House will take up a measure next week to do so.-The speaker's office also released a statement Friday saying solutions to the forced cuts would also continued to be discussed.