Pentagon cuts back furlough days for civilian workforce

The Pentagon is reducing the number of days its civilian
workforce will be furloughed this year to 14 from 22 as a result of the government funding
bill President Obama signed on Tuesday.

The Associated Press reported
that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided Wednesday to cut the number of furlough
days for nearly 800,000 civilian employees at the Defense Department, most of whom would be furloughed.

The reduction in furloughs is possible because the
continuing resolution that Congress passed included a full-year Defense appropriations
bill that shifts an additional $10 billion into the military’s operations and
maintenance accounts. 

Those accounts, which fund civilian pay as well as training and repairs, would have faced
heavy shortfalls had the Pentagon been funded through a full-year continuing resolution.

{mosads}The Pentagon still must cut more than $40 billion under
sequestration, but the Defense appropriations bill puts the department on better
fiscal footing before the across-the-board cuts are implemented.

The Pentagon’s initial plan for civilian furloughs, which
officials said saved between $4 billion and $5 billion in fiscal year 2013, would have
required most civilians to take off one day per week between April and September,
for a total of 22 days.

Now the start date for the unpaid days has been pushed back until
mid-June, according to the AP.

Some civilian jobs are exempt from the furloughs, such as
those operating in war zones.

The civilian furloughs has been one of the most concrete
examples of pain under the across-the-board sequestration cuts. Before the cuts
took effect in March, the Pentagon played up the impact of the cuts through the
furloughs as well as canceled deployments, including a second Navy carrier
group to the Persian Gulf.

Some Republican lawmakers accused the Pentagon of playing up the “drama” of the cuts for political gain.