Sequestration — or, more precisely, the "supercommittee sequestration" — is a group of cuts to
federal spending that took effect March 1. More accurately, it's the term for
the budgetary method through which those cuts are implemented.
The supercommittee sequestration
was originally passed as part of the Budget Control
Act of 2011 (BCA), better known as the debt ceiling compromise.
It was intended to serve as incentive for the Joint Select
Committee on Deficit Reduction (aka the "Supercommittee")
to come to a deal to cut $1.5 trillion over 10 years. If the committee had done
so, and Congress had passed it by Dec. 23, 2011, then the sequestration would
have been averted.