Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel announced today he is reducing the number of unpaid days off for civilian military employees from 11 to six.
That’s good news for about 3,500 employees at MacDill Air Force Base who were affected by layoffs and a surrounding community that benefits economically from the base.
The employees — about 2,200 at the 6th Air Mobility Wing, about 900 employees at U.S. Special Operations Command and more than 450 at U.S. Central Command and others spread through MacDill’s many units — were losing an average about $200 for every furlough day.
Overall, that meant the loss of about $8 million in wages, money that filters back into the community.
The furloughs went into effect July 8 and were scheduled to go through the end of October.
They were enacted to help cut nearly $40 billion out of the defense budget as required under forced spending cuts, called sequestration, that went into effect when the White House and Congress did not agree on how to cut the federal deficit.
In a memo to military leaders, Hagel said that while most civilian employees would have taken six days of furlough by Aug. 17, if they haven’t, “they must do so in a timely manner” before Sept. 30.
Despite the reduction in furlough days, MacDill still faces as many as 1,200 job cuts, regardless of what happens with sequestration, because Hagel has ordered all headquarters commands, including Special Operations Command and Central Command, to trim their budgets by 20 percent, beginning in October, 2014.
The furlough days were enacted after Hagel said Defense Department leaders “began making painful and far-reaching changes to close this shortfall: civilian hiring freezes, layoffs of temporary workers, significant cuts in facilities maintenance, and more,” he said in a statement. “We also sharply cut training and maintenance. The Air Force stopped flying in many squadrons, the Navy kept ships in port, and the Army cancelled training events. These actions have seriously reduced military readiness.”
By May, with the department still facing an $11 billion shortfall, Hagel ordered 11 days of furloughs. But he said he wanted to reduce the number of days of unpaid time off.
“Hoping to be able to reduce furloughs, we submitted a large reprogramming proposal to Congress in May, asking them to let us move funds from acquisition accounts into day-to-day operating accounts,” he said. “Congress approved most of this request in late July, and we are working with them to meet remaining needs. We are also experiencing less than expected costs in some areas, such as transportation of equipment out of Afghanistan. Where necessary, we have taken aggressive action to transfer funds among services and agencies. And the furloughs have saved us money.”
The result, he said, is that he was able to reduce the number of furlough days.
The reprieve, however, is only good until the end of next month. Hagel said what happens after that is still up in the air.
“The Department of Defense still faces major fiscal challenges,” he said. “If Congress does not change the Budget Control Act, [the Defense Department] will be forced to cut an additional $52 billion in FY 2014, starting on Oct. 1. This represents 40 percent more than this year’s sequester-mandated cuts of $37 billion. Facing this uncertainty, I cannot be sure what will happen next year, but I want to assure our civilian employees that we will do everything possible to avoid more furloughs.”