The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) this afternoon released the OMB Report Pursuant to the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012, as required by Congress. According to OMB’s estimates, non-exempt nondefense discretionary federal programs will be cut by 8.2 percent if sequestration occurs on January 2, 2013. The report does not get down to the program level, so we do not have official numbers on the amount the Perkins could be cut, but based on our rough estimates, Perkins could be reduced by approximately $92 million. The total cut to Department of Education programs would be $4.113 billion.
OMB’s determination that the cut from sequestration would be 8.2 percent is based on the assumption that FY13 discretionary spending will be at FY12 levels. However, as we told you earlier this week, the 6 month continuing resolution increases FY13 spending 0.612 percent above FY12 levels. Therefore, the final sequestration percentage will likely be slightly different than 8.2 percent.
Nancy Conneely, Public Policy Manager
Tags: appropriations, budget, Congress, funding, Perkins