“The legislation I have introduced along with Sen. Sessions requires the administration to share with Congress and with the American people exactly how the sequestration will be carried out. This is straightforward legislation,” he continued, “it’s about transparency and it’s something that I hope my colleagues on both sides of the aisle will work to ensure that this sequestration plan is shared with the Congress and the American people.”

{mosads}Similar legislation was introduced as part of a Senate Armed Services Authorization bill, and earlier Wednesday Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced an amendment to a Senate farm bill that would require the Department of Defense to provide information on how $500 billion worth of cuts as part of the sequestration would affect the military. The difference, though, is that the legislation by Thune and Sessions applies to the entire government, including defense and non-defense spending.

“The best thing that we can do for the American people, for our job creators, for investors, for our small businesses is provide as much certainty as possible going into the end of this year, and it seems to me, at least, that that starts with ensuring that we have a plan coming out of the administration that specifically clarifies how this sequestration would be implemented so that Congress can act accordingly, hopefully before the end of the year — hopefully in the next few months,” Thune continued.

Thune said the legislation is very straightforward and “merely requests and requires the administration to provide to the Congress and the American people a clear plan about how they plan to implement sequestration in hopes then that we might be able to make some necessary changes to ensure that the defense budget isn’t gutted and that these adverse impacts on the economy are not felt by the American people and their small businesses.”

Republicans have complained that the Obama administration has not yet announced the planned structure of the sequester despite some administration officials saying they oppose cuts to defense.