Washington – Earlier today, President Obama signed into law the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012. The legislation, which had strong bipartisan support in both the House and the Senate, requires the President to detail how the administration plans to implement the budget sequestration cuts scheduled to take place on January 2, 2013.

Upon the President’s signing of the legislation, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan issued the following statement:

“The President’s signing of the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 is a welcome step toward providing Congress and American taxpayers with the transparency necessary to understand how sequestration will affect our national defense and key domestic priorities. With the President’s signature, the administration is required under the law to submit this report to Congress within 30 days.

“Allowing the sequester to occur would be a failure of leadership and a failure to govern.  We must work together to replace these arbitrary cuts. The House has already passed legislation nearly three months ago to this end with a package of common sense spending reductions and reforms that more than offset the cost of the sequester. Unfortunately, we have not yet seen the same action from Senate Democrats and the President. The arbitrary cuts called for under sequestration would be a severe blow to our military and key domestic priorities.  I urge the Senate and President Obama to follow our lead in providing an alternative to replace the harmful effects of sequestration.”

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