Education advocates brace for cuts in the fallout from the hard-fought deal to avert a U.S. default. The hard-fought deal places 10-year caps on federal spending, including a $7 billion overall reduction from current levels in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. It creates a new bipartisan congressional committee charged with finding $1.5 trillion in cuts over the next 10 years. Failure to come up with or enact such reductions would trigger automatic cuts, or "sequestration," of $984 billion spread across most agencies. The Committee for Education Funding, a coalition of 85 education groups, estimated those automatic cuts would amount to 6.7 percent in most agencies, which for the U.S. Department of Education would translate into about $3 billion annually. Education Department officials are uncertain whether the bipartisan committee will recommend cuts to the agency's funding. And it's also too early to say how the "trigger" provisions that would force cuts across government would affect the department's programs. The uncertainties stem from a debt deal that sets broad parameters for federal spending--in essence, shrinking the size of the pie--but leaves it up to the bipartisan committee, and eventually Congress, to find specific budget savings. One thing for certain: The pie has gotten smaller by $7 billion for the next budget year, leaving fewer dollars to be spread among agencies, including the Education Department.