Last Friday, as required under The Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (P. L. 112–155), the Obama Administration released a report detailing the automatic cuts scheduled to take effect in January, unless Congress can pass an alternative deficit reduction plan before then. The report outlines the breakdown of exempt and non-exempt federal accounts, an estimate of the funding reductions that would be required across non-exempt accounts, an explanation of the calculations in the report, and additional information on the potential implementation of the sequestration. Since the full Congress has yet to pass any FY 2013 appropriation bills, the calculations and estimates provided in the report are based on assumptions that a continuing resolution for FY 2013 would be approved at the same funding levels as in FY 2012. Of course, any appropriations legislation enacted for the FY 2013 will change the estimates provided in this report.
The Administration acknowledges that sequestration is not the likely path forward to achieve the goal of deficit reduction and urges Congress to seek a more balanced deficit reduction plan through legislation that would replace the arbitrary, across-the-board reductions laid out in this report. CWLA has created a sequestration chart with preliminary estimates of cuts to selected programs serving vulnerable children and families.