The first fact-based showdown should come over the next several days following congressional passage of the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012.

The measure cleared the U.S. Senate unanimously this week after passage in the House by 414-2.

The legislation, now on its way to the president, requires the Office of Management and Budget to produce a "detailed report" within 30 days on the fiscal year 2013 effects of sequestration on both defense and non-defense accounts.

The Budget Control Act passed in 2011 requires sequestration or removal of $1.2 trillion from the federal budget over the next ten years beginning in January unless the bill is amended or repealed. Some $500 billion will be pulled from national security spending, leading to chaotic conditions according to Pentagon officials. The defense budget is already programmed to lose $487 billion over the next ten years due to an initiative by the Obama administration.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, praised passage of the legislation in the Senate.

"Everyone should understand that sequestration is a terrible way to cut spending, so I am hopeful that the more information my colleagues receive about its impact they will be willing to move off their partisan positions and work toward a balanced and bipartisan replacement," Murray is quoted in a press statement released by her office.

Murray said sequestration is not going to disappear, but it needs to be replaced with a measure that is "balanced, bipartisan and fair to the middle class."

In a Wednesday hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta indicated sequestration would lead to active-duty cuts of 100,000 on top of the 100,000 expected due to reductions imposed by the administration.

"It would obviously add another 100,000 that would have to be reduced," Panetta is quoted by the media. "The impact of that on top of the reductions that are currently going to take place would place a huge burden on the systems to be able to respond. I think it would be near impossible to try to do the kind of work that we are trying to do and make it work effectively."

President Obama is on record saying he will veto any measure that seeks to repeal the Budget Control Act.