Support H.R. 5872, to Call for Report on Impact of Sequestration

Recipient: House Budget Committee

Dear House Budget Committee Member:

On behalf of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a coalition charged by its diverse membership of over 210 national organizations to promote and protect the rights of all persons in the United States, we write in support of H.R. 5872, the Sequester Transparency Act of 2012. H.R. 5872 would direct the Office of Management and Budget to submit a detailed report to Congress on the impact of defense and nondefense budget sequestration for fiscal year 2013. We urge you to revise the bill, however, so that it matches the language of the bipartisan amendment sponsored by Senators Murray and McCain that recently passed the Senate.

There is bipartisan agreement that sequestration would be devastating to the nation, yet there has been no official analysis of its impact. In the absence of critical information and guidance on how the sequester will affect federal funds, those institutions, states, and local communities that rely on federal funding are unable to plan and must brace for the worst possible scenario. H.R. 5872 would begin to fill this information gap.  Specifically, it would help  answer questions regarding how and when sequestration would be implemented, as well as clarify the impact and timing of sequestration on programs that rely on federal funds.

Importantly, H.R. 5872 requires an examination of all of the automatic cuts, not just those to defense programs.  Because of the broad swath of our federal budget that will be affected— including public safety and law enforcement, environmental protection, education and job training, public health, housing and social services, and other programs on which the most vulnerable Americans in this tough economy depend—the bipartisan automatic cuts should be addressed as a whole and their impact should be examined in full across all areas of the budget they touch.

We urge you to support H.R. 5872. Please contact Rob Randhava, Senior Counsel at (202) 466-3311, or Nancy Zirkin at (202) 263-2880, if you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Wade Henderson
President & CEO

Nancy Zirkin
Executive Vice President