Sequestration

Sequestration went into effect on March 1st, after a 2 month “push back” from the original January 2nd deadline.  This time around there were no real last minute efforts on behalf of the leadership of Congress or the White House to avert the cuts with a “grand bargain”.  It appears that posturing aside sequestration will be in effect likely through the the fiscal year.  As mentioned previously the sequester is a 10 year budget cutting “worst case option” that was enacted in the Budget Control Act of 2011.  While the cuts are scheduled to be approximately 5-7% in discretionary spending,  due to the compressed nature of the cuts on FY13, it will be a much larger impact at 9-13%.  The University is anticipating a cut of 5.5 M dollars in FY13 alone and we will continue to press for the need to stop the sequester and urge Congress to come up with a “grand bargain”.