Now that the government has reopened, Congressional Budget Committee Chairmen Senator Patty Murray (D-Washington) and Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin) have begun the process of creating a budget plan that must be completed by 13 December. If the bicameral budget process does not work, then a second sequester will be imposed by 15 January 2014. The first sequester took place on 3 January 2013 as part of the Deficit Control Act of 2011. That legislation provided budget targets for Congress to meet and would trigger an across the board sequester if those targets were not met. This means, whether overtly or covertly, much of the budget committees' efforts will be channeled into exempting certain types of spending from the sequester. The...

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