WASHINGTON, DC – With his vote to pass the Sequestration Transparency Act (H.R. 5872), Congressman Ander Crenshaw today (7/18) called on President Obama to tell the American people how he would implement drastic defense budget cuts that may be ahead under the process known as sequestration.

The bill, which passed the House 414 - 2, requires the President to submit a report to Congress on how he would implement upcoming budget sequestration cuts that would take place in January 2013 under current law. The measure has already passed the United States Senate and now goes to a Committee of Conference.

“Members of the military, their families, the defense industrial base, and taxpayers deserve answers from the White House on the consequences of sequestration and how they will be dealt with,” said Crenshaw, a member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. “In May, I supported a proposal to replace dangerous and arbitrary defense cuts with domestic spending reductions that ensures our military remains strong and Congress lives within its means. What does the White House plan to do?”

“The Democrat-controlled Senate has not produced a budget in over 1,000 days and neither the Senate nor the President have offered a credible solution to replace the scheduled sequester cuts,” Crenshaw continued. “The President’s own Secretary of Defense warned that sequester is ‘like shooting yourself in the head.’” If the President isn’t willing to work with the House to replace the cuts, he needs to tell the American people what his plans are.”

Under the process known as sequestration, if current budget law is not changed, across-the-board spending cuts will be enforced under the Budget Control Act, resulting in a 10% cut to the Department of Defense and an 8% cut to non-defense discretionary spending.

The Sequestration Transparency Act would require the president to submit a report to Congress that includes an estimate of the sequestration percentages and amounts necessary to achieve the mandatory reduction for each spending category on an account level. The Act would also require the report to include any other data or explanations that would enhance public understanding of the looming sequester and actions to be taken under it.

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