Editor’s Note: John Cooney is a former OMB official who provided legal advice to OIRA, the office which was a twenty year, five Administration endeavor of the Editor.
Under the Sequestration Order, the agencies will be obliged to apply a mandatory percentage reduction to each line item in their budgets to cut approximately $45 billion each from Defense programs and civilian programs by September 30.
The agencies are not required to take any action on March 1, March 2, or March 3, etc. Their only legal duty is that by the end of the fiscal year, they must have reduced the amount of FY 2013 money they obligate by the required percentage amount. The agencies can delay as long as they want in making the cuts. But the longer they delay and the more slowly they start, the more pronounced the cuts will have to be toward the end of the fiscal year.
Read entire article attached below.
