Faced with profound Navy budget cuts this spring that could wallop Hampton Roads' economy, Virginia's senators and the region's three congressmen said this week they don't consider the reductions inevitable - as has been suggested by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

But the Virginians agree that with each passing day, the prospect of halting billions of dollars in cuts slated to automatically begin March 1 becomes more daunting.

"Time is not on our side," said U.S. Rep. Scott Rigell, whose 2nd Congressional District is home to several military installations, including Norfolk Naval Station and Oceana Naval Air Station.

Rigell and others in the local delegation lamented the lack of action by top congressional leaders or President Barack Obama to more aggressively pursue a compromise to avoid the military cuts.

At the same time, Sen. Mark Warner said he's begun pressing colleagues to consider a plan to avoid some large cuts altogether, and slow the impact of others, by allowing the Navy more authority to transfer funds.

"I will match my budget hawk credentials against anybody, but there's a smart way and a dumb way to cut," Warner said Thursday.

At play are two separate budget issues that involve reductions in military spending for naval operations and maintenance, as well as ship repairs and new construction. Economists at Old Dominion University said this week that the cuts would cost the region from 28,700 to 42,300 jobs, both directly and indirectly.

The one-two punch is slated to start March 1 when $1 trillion in automatic cuts spread over 10 years will begin unless Congress steps in. The reduction, known as a sequester, is divided between military and domestic programs.

The Navy said last week those cuts, which would amount to about $4 billion this year, would require eliminating or scaling back many operations worldwide and would force civilian defense employees to take up to 22 days of unpaid leave. In Hampton Roads, tens of millions of dollars in ship repairs would be canceled.

Meanwhile, the Navy is taking steps to curtail another $4.6 billion in spending because a divided Congress has yet to approve a 2013 budget. Lawmakers have only agreed to pay expenses until March 27 under 2012 budget levels, which gives the Navy less money than anticipated.

If Congress decides in the next few weeks to keep funding at last year's level, Navy leaders said, they'll make a broad array of cuts that directly affect Hampton Roads' ship repair and construction industrial base.

U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes, who was visiting local shipyards and Navy facilities Thursday and today to talk with the affected businesses and Navy officials, blames the Senate for failing to pass its own 2013 budget plan that would be used to negotiate with the budget the House passed several months ago. He also has accused the Obama administration of refusing until recently to allow the Pentagon to publicize how the cuts might affect military operations.

"I think we will avoid the worst-case scenarios... but every day it gets more and more difficult," Forbes said.

Warner said a way out - at least temporarily - is for the Navy to be allowed to shift funds between accounts to deal with immediate needs.

The Virginia Democrat said Navy officials have told him they have $3.6 billion in some accounts for projects that have been completed, which could be shifted to accounts with shortfalls. But the service would need congressional approval to do so.

"My hope and prayer is that we can provide the flexibility... not to waste money," Warner said, noting that cutting the ship repair projects budgets will make the work much more expensive later. "It's bad business," he said.

As for sequestration, Warner still favors reducing deficit spending through a combination of budget cuts, entitlement reforms and new revenue. Like many in Congress, he never intended for sequestration to happen. The automatic cuts were set up by lawmakers in 2011 as a doomsday threat to force Congress to adopt a deficit-reduction plan. When no plan was approved, the cuts were set in motion.

Warner said if no deal can be negotiated and the automatic cuts begin, Congress should give the military more control over where cuts are made, rather than enforce the across-the-board cuts demanded under sequestration.

"I've got to convince them that's not the right choice, but even if that is their choice... there's a stupid way and a less stupid way to do it."

U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine said he hopes Congress finds a way to postpone sequestration, giving legislators time to adopt an annual budget that addresses the fiscal issues.

"Why would we be making short-term... decisions that are a holdover from a previous Congress that could not get it right when we are embarking upon a budget process?" Kaine asked during a Senate hearing.

U.S. Rep. Bobby Scott, who also said he's disturbed by the size of the Navy cuts, noted that they are linked to Congress's decision in early January to renew the so-called Bush tax cuts for most Americans.

The Newport News Democrat has long argued that the tax cuts should have been allowed to expire to help pay for government services, including defense, and reduce the deficit. He contends most people would not object to the taxes if they understood what services would be cut.

"The problem is that they voted to extend $4 trillion tax cuts but failed to articulate how we're going to pay for it.... Did they not think we were going to get to this point in three weeks? What did they think was going to happen? Did they think it was just going to go away?"