Sequestration Report Expected Late This Week

House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Buck McKeon (R-Calif.) criticized the White House for missing the Sept. 7 deadline to submit a report to Congress on the effects of budget sequestration in Fiscal 2013. The Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, signed into law on Aug. 7, gave the Obama Administration 30 days from enactment of the legislation to deliver the report. “The President’s continued silence on sequestration is disappointing. I can only conclude that President Obama wants to impose cuts his own Secretary of Defense has called catastrophic,” said McKeon in a Sept. 7 release. “What other reason could he have for delaying a report that makes the consequences of sequestration as clear as possible?” That same day, White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters en route to an Obama campaign rally in New Hampshire that the report would be submitted late this week, due to “the time needed to address the complex issues involved in preparing the report.” Carney said “thus far, Congress has not done its job” in acting to prevent sequestration. (Carney transcript) (See also Boehner statement.)