John Cooney addressed the 18th Annual Federal Procurement Institute, "Forecast for Federal Procurement in 2012 and Beyond: Regulatory Pressure Rising, Budgetary Storms Swirling" of the American Bar Association Section on Public Contract Law. John’s speech discussed the threatened Sequestration of agency appropriations in January 2013. He also analyzed the possibility that the two parties, and the Legislative and Executive Branches, will be able to develop coherent fiscal policy in the crucible formed by the convergence of five critical events in late 2012: the potential lapse of appropriations; exceeding the debt ceiling; the expiration of the Bush tax cuts; the November elections; and the threatened 10% automatic, indiscriminate, across-the-board reduction in defense spending (sequestration) if the policy process fails to reach agreement on taxing and spending policy.