Last Friday, the White House released a fact sheet on the impact of the sequester scheduled to take effect on March 1, 2013. The statement highlights effects of sequestration that the Administration deems “most damaging” to the middle class, including funding cuts to education, small business, food safety, research, and mental health. As explained in the fact sheet, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now estimates that the sequester will require an annual reduction of approximately 5 percent for non-defense programs covered by sequestration and 8 percent for defense programs covered by sequestration for fiscal 2013. Since these cuts would need to be implemented over the seven months remaining in the fiscal year (March through September), this would effectively require 9 percent reductions for non-defense programs and 13 percent for defense programs for the rest of the fiscal year. In a press briefing on Friday, OMB federal controller Danny Werfel warned that implementing sequestration would require significant furloughs (unpaid leave days) for “hundreds of thousands” of federal employees.

Link: Fact Sheet