Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is trying to quell contractors' fears about sequestration. He meets regularly with industry leaders. Yesterday, though, the tone was more urgent than normal.

He told industry leaders he keeps urging Congress to pass a new law to avoid those automatic program cuts. He said sequestration in any form would hurt both domestic and national security programs across the board.

A recent industry report said the sequester could cost more than 2 million jobs nationwide. By some estimates, it would raise unemployment by 1.5 percent.

This story is part of Federal News Radio's daily DoD Report. For more defense news, click here.

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