SEQUESTRATION: Compromise Reached on McCain/Murray Amendments; Bipartisan Murray-McCain Amendment to Call for Examination of Impact of All Sequestration

June 26, 2012

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ) announced that they had reached a bipartisan agreement to pull the Murray and McCain amendments from floor consideration, and replace them with a single bipartisan amendment that would call on the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), the President, and the Department of Defense to release reports on the impact of sequestration across the federal budget. The Murray-McCain amendment passed the full Senate on a voice vote.

“This bipartisan compromise will make sure Congress gets reports on the impact of all aspects of sequestration, both defense and nondefense,” said Senator Patty Murray. “I was proud to work with Senator McCain to come to this bipartisan agreement today. Our amendment calls for an examination of the impact of automatic cuts to the Defense Department, as well as the painful cuts to education, food safety, border patrol, and so many of the programs middle class families and the most vulnerable Americans depend on.”

“This measure will shed much-needed light on the damaging effects of budget sequestration, which Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has said would be ‘devastating’ to our national security,” said Senator John McCain. “Today the U.S. Senate joins the Senate Armed Services Committee in unanimously passing a requirement that the Administration produce a detailed report on the impacts of sequestration. The House has passed a similar requirement. Only when the American people have a clear picture of the dangerous, reckless nature of these cuts will we be able to move forward together to consider alternatives that will not imperil our nation’s security and economy. We have a responsibility to act on this information, and do so before the lame duck session.”

The bipartisan amendment calls on the Department of Defense to release a report by August 15th on the impact of defense sequestration. It also calls on OMB to release a report within 30 days and the President to release a report within 60 days on the impact of all of sequestration, across both defense and nondefense spending.