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Infographic on DOD Sequestration

Posted on May 28, 2015

On March 1st, 2013, the president ordered across-the-board spending reductions for all federal agencies and departments, known as sequestration.

As a result, the Department of Defense (DOD) needed to reduce certain spending by about $37.2 billion over the remainder of FY 2013. To absorb these cuts, the Department reduced spending across its discretionary accounts subject to sequestration, with its largest account, operation and maintenance, absorbing the largest reductions.

We recently reviewed DOD’s implementation of sequestration and its effects, including how much flexibility DOD had to absorb spending cuts, and the results of those reductions. Our infographic below highlights some of our findings, and how they could inform future planning:

GAO-15-470