WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration policy of shifting its security focus to the Asia-Pacific region will remain on track despite drastic U.S. budget cuts looming this week, the top Pentagon official for Asia said on Wednesday. In late 2011, the administration articulated a policy for a "pivot" or "rebalance" of its diplomatic and security focus to East Asia as it winds down wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The U.S. fiscal crisis has raised questions about the U.S. ability to follow through on these plans. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Changes to the federal tax treatment of U.S. municipal bonds could cost state and local governments tens of billions of dollars per year, cities and counties warned on Wednesday as they escalated their fight to defend the bonds' tax exemption. The interest income that bondholders receive on the $3.7 trillion municipal bond market is not subject to federal income tax, allowing local issuers to tap capital markets more cheaply. For more than two years, President Barack Obama has suggested limiting that exemption to increase federal tax revenues. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives are planning to put up for a vote next week a plan that avoids yet another nasty partisan budget fight, this time a potential shutdown of the government when the current temporary spending law runs out at the end of March. House Republican lawmakers said their caucus voiced strong support at a meeting on Wednesday for a stop-gap measure that would keep federal agencies and programs funded through the September 30 end of the fiscal year. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Private printing presses are among the businesses that will be hit hard if Washington goes ahead with $85 billion in automatic federal spending cuts, a government official said on Wednesday. The U.S. Government Printing Office, the printing press for official documents, uses about 16,000 private vendors to carry out most of its work, which is due to shrivel if the "sequestration" cuts kick in on Friday. "Some vendors may have as much as 80 or 90 percent (government business)," Davita Vance-Cooks, the acting GPO director, told lawmakers on Wednesday. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A senior military budget officer said on Wednesday that converging financial pressures could leave the U.S. Army with just $2 billion to spend on operations, maintenance and training this year after it has funded the war in Afghanistan and other security needs. That is a fraction of what the Army usually spends to train soldiers, maintain bases, refurbish equipment and carry out overseas operations during a seven-month period and has created a "dire" and "unprecedented" outlook, said Major General Karen Dyson, director of the Army Budget Office. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Senate intelligence committee on Wednesday postponed until next week a vote on the confirmation of White House aide John Brennan to be CIA director, dashing hopes of Democratic leaders who had hoped to have a vote on Thursday. The committee's Republican vice chairman, Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, said the panel expects to hold the vote on Tuesday. No explanation for the delay was immediately available. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon program chief for the F-35 warplane slammed the main contractors on the program, Lockheed Martin and Pratt & Whitney, on Wednesday, accusing them of trying to "squeeze every nickel" out of the U.S. government and failing to see the long-term benefits of the project. U.S. Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan made the comments during a visit to Australia, where he has sought to convince lawmakers and generals to stick to a plan to buy 100 of the jets, an exercise complicated by the second grounding of the plane this year and looming U.S. defense cuts. ...