On the recordJuly 19, 2012
I thank the Senator from New Hampshire for yielding on that point--more important, for the great work she is doing as a member of the Armed Services Committee. She has been a very active member of that committee and a strong and clear voice for New Hampshire and for America's national security interests. I might also add that we serve together on the Budget Committee, where really this should have originated. Unfortunately, since we did not pass a budget, it is very hard to have a plan for how to proceed with spending the taxpayers' money, and this is what you end up with. Because we have this process put in place where, if action is not taken to avoid it, we have an across-the-board sequester that would occur at the first of next year--half of which would come out of the defense budget--we need to be able to find out exactly how these cuts would be implemented. The thing we do not know is how the administration plans to implement this. I think that is what the transparency act that passed in the House of Representatives is designed to get at. By the way, it was an overwhelming vote, 414 to 2. The House of Representatives, in an overwhelmingly bipartisan way, weighed in on the issue about whether the administration ought to spell out in clear detail to the Congress and the American people how it intends to implement its sequestration plan.…
