Science: Automatic, across-the-board budget cuts—called sequestration—will take place in 2013 unless the US Congress manages to agree on how to reduce the federal debt over the next decade. Government science funding programs—including the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Environmental Protection Agency, NASA, the National Institutes of Health, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and NSF—could see their budgets cut by as much as 8.2%. Sequestration, which most administration officials agree is a drastic measure, was never intended to be implemented; it was merely the result of a political deal in 2011 to enable Congress to raise the government’s debt ceiling.