Reacting to OMB’s Sequestration Report, Mayor Vincent C. Gray Urges Congress to Avoid Massive, Job-Killing Cuts

(WASHINGTON, DC) – Mayor Vincent C. Gray today issued the below statement in reaction to the Office of Management and Budget’s release of its sequestration report – a description of how the sequestration to which Congress agreed under last year’s Budget Control Act would take place if legislators do not avoid it by finding a solution before the Jan. 1, 2013 deadline:

“The sequestration report makes one thing clear: The District’s economy will suffer significantly if Congress does not find a solution to prevent sequestration from taking effect. The District of Columbia and our entire region, for better or for worse, depend to a significant degree on federal spending. These cuts would likely mean the loss of thousands of public and private-sector jobs in our area and a corresponding significant decrease in revenues for local governments, including the District’s.

These drastic cuts would also force the District government to make further painful cuts in order to balance our own budget with much less income than we could anticipate without sequestration – further exacerbating the situation and harming all of our residents. Congress can and should act quickly in finding a balanced, responsible way to move forward and avoid this disaster.

Furthermore, the threat of these cuts underlines the need to move quickly to encourage diversification of the District’s economy and encourage growth in private-sector industries not dependent on federal spending. This is why I have pushed aggressively for legislation – such as our tech-incentive bill – and other measures to make the District a more attractive place to our burgeoning technology industry and other growth sectors.”