Chairman Ben Bernanke's Semiannual Monetary Policy Report Before the Congressional Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, U.S. Senate

Federal Reserve Chairman Bernanke testified on July 17 before the Senate Banking Committee that (i) the "U.S. economy has continued to recover, but economic activity appears to have decelerated," (ii) for which he blamed a number of factors including conditions in Europe, "fiscal policy and fiscal uncertainty." In his printed testimony, he footnoted to a report that warned of the negative effects on the economy of an increase in tax rates and a sequestration of federal money. See Economic Effects of Reducing the Fiscal Restraint That Is Scheduled to Occur in 2013. 

View testimony in full here (links externally to FRB website).