WASHINGTON - Earlier today, the United States Senate passed the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012. The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives earlier this month. The Sequestration Transparency Act requires President Obama to detail how the administration plans to implement the budget sequestration cuts scheduled to take place in January 2013 under current law.

Congressman Paul Ryan issued the following statement:

"Senate passage of the Sequestration Transparency Act is a vital step toward gaining a better understanding of the impact the sequester will have on our national defense and key domestic priorities. Strong bipartisan majorities in both the House and Senate show that taxpayers and the troops deserve a more complete picture from the administration on how these arbitrary, across-the-board spending cuts will be implemented.

"Transparency is absolutely necessary with sequestration less than six months away and the leadership shown by Chairman Hensarling and Senators Thune and Sessions have helped shed more light on this unworkable law. I urge the President to sign the bill so that Office of Management and Budget will finally unveil details of their plans for implementation. In the meantime, the focus must turn to the even more important goal of replacing the sequester. The House has already achieved this with a package of spending cuts and reforms that more than offset the cost of sequestration. The Senate should follow our lead so that taxpayers and the troops do not pay the unnecessary price of indiscriminate and poorly-targeted spending cuts."