Last month's congressionally mandated OMB report on the impact of sequestration omitted an obscure provision that would slice another $10.1 billion from Defense Department programs in 2013. Because of that the Pentagon would have to cut $60.6 billion instead of $50.5 billion, a 20 percent increase.
This "second, separate sequestration" not previously accounted for would occur because the failure of the much-derided "Super Committee" triggered a reduction in the total amount (the "cap") that could be spent on security-related programs, according to a report released yesterday by the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Norm Dicks. The second-stage sequester would not affect non-defense programs.
The way the Budget Control Act is written, "they set a cap and then then lower it," explained Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. "They could not have made it more complex if they had tried." (His own report on the subject also included both parts of the sequester but came in slightly lower than Dicks, at $56.5 billion).
As complex it is, however, Harrison went on, it shouldn't have taken until October to figure this out. "This law was put into place fourteen months ago, you know," he told AOL Defense. "Why has it taken this long for both the Congress and the administration to get around to actually crunching the numbers and saying oh yes, 'This is what the law actually means'? We could've had this discussion a year ago."