This story was updated at 6:35 p.m. EST.

The Office of Management and Budget has requested detailed information from federal agencies about reductions they'd make if across-the-board budget cuts scheduled for Jan. 2 occur, even as the White House is expressing confidence that sequestration will be avoided.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said at a press briefing today the "request for additional information" that OMB sent to agencies this week should not be read as a change in the Obama administration's view that sequestration cuts included in the Budget Control Act that came out of last year's debt ceiling deal are the wrong way to cut the federal budget.

Rather, with less than a month to go before those cuts kick in, Carney said the administration is simply ensuring that agencies are prepared in case the sequester order becomes necessary.

The White House "remains focused on reaching agreement" with Congress to avoid the sequester, Carney said.

OMB noted yesterday that the office released its 400-page Sequestration Transparency Act (STA) report in September, which detailed preliminary estimates of the potential sequestration's impact on agencies. But in light of the continuing resolution and other updates since September, OMB this week asked agencies for additional information and analysis needed to update the estimates in the STA report and finalize calculations of the spending reductions that would be required. OMB noted that the request this week was of a technical nature; for example, the office requested the sequestrable federal administrative expenses in otherwise exempt mandatory accounts.

Spokesmen for the Department of Energy and U.S. EPA referred questions about the OMB communication back to the White House.

Earlier this afternoon, John Berry, director of the Office of Personnel Management, met with the executive board of the American Federation of Government Employees, the nation's largest union of federal employees, to discuss issues relating to the looming fiscal cliff.

And Charles Orzehoskie, president of the EPA chapter of the AFGE, said yesterday that the union discussed budget issues with EPA management about a month ago. Sequestration was not the main topic, but officials were clear that layoffs were a last resort.

"They keep saying they don't intend to fire anybody, they intend to mitigate any furloughs, and they don't plan on any downsizing," Orzehoskie said.

EPA officials have not offered specifics to the union on sequestration plans, Orzehoskie said, and he doesn't think the agency has done much planning for the possibility of the across-the-board cuts.

Still, he said, EPA may be in a better position than other agencies because it has had to deal with constant threats to its budget. House Republicans' budget proposal for this year, for example, would slash EPA's budget by 17 percent to $7 billion. The agency has thus already put in hiring freezes to prepare for constrained spending.

"It looks to me that this agency is going to take a hit no matter what happens," he said.