RBP
02-21-2013, 06:39 AM
The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1.
Defense officials have warned lawmakers that sequestration will devastate the military and lead to a hollow force, but the civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.
The Pentagon furloughs will affect civilians across the country. Pentagon officials have said that civilians could face up to 22 days of furloughs, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year in September. The employees would receive 30 days' notice before being furloughed.
“We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DOD personnel — but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrote in a message to the department. “The president has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions.”
The Joint Chiefs also testified before both the House and Senate last week to lay out the dangers of sequestration, as the Pentagon has taken a much more proactive approach to the cuts than when they were set to hit in January.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters Wednesday that the furloughs would save between $4 bill and $5 billion in 2013. The Pentagon would have to cut $46 billion under sequestration.
Hale said that most of the Defense Department’s near-800,000 civilian workforce would face furloughs, but there would be exceptions, including foreign workers on overseas bases and those working in combat zones.
Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica Wright said that furloughs were “not a Beltway phenomenon,” as roughly 80 percent of DOD civilian workers lived outside the Washington, D.C., metro area.
The potential for furloughs was one of the few things DOD officials announced before the Jan. 2 deadline, which was delayed two months in the “fiscal-cliff” deal.
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Again, suck my cock. I won't even touch the issue of why DOD needs 800,000 civilians :rolleyes:, but let's get some facts. We spend a trillion dollars on defense, and military spending is about 2/3 of that. We are out of Iraq and total government spending went up? Huh? The military budget also went up including OCO (overseas contingency operations, aka war spending). Huh? How does that add up?
Sequestration would require $46 billion in cuts this year in DOD according to this article. If you use just military spending from 2012, that is a 6.8% reduction. We're out of Iraq and we can't reduce DOD by 7%?? I think that number is overstated to begin with, but still... why would we still spend that money?
Listen, I am the first to say "support the troops" but this is all bullshit.
Defense officials have warned lawmakers that sequestration will devastate the military and lead to a hollow force, but the civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.
The Pentagon furloughs will affect civilians across the country. Pentagon officials have said that civilians could face up to 22 days of furloughs, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year in September. The employees would receive 30 days' notice before being furloughed.
“We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DOD personnel — but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrote in a message to the department. “The president has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions.”
The Joint Chiefs also testified before both the House and Senate last week to lay out the dangers of sequestration, as the Pentagon has taken a much more proactive approach to the cuts than when they were set to hit in January.
Pentagon Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters Wednesday that the furloughs would save between $4 bill and $5 billion in 2013. The Pentagon would have to cut $46 billion under sequestration.
Hale said that most of the Defense Department’s near-800,000 civilian workforce would face furloughs, but there would be exceptions, including foreign workers on overseas bases and those working in combat zones.
Acting Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Jessica Wright said that furloughs were “not a Beltway phenomenon,” as roughly 80 percent of DOD civilian workers lived outside the Washington, D.C., metro area.
The potential for furloughs was one of the few things DOD officials announced before the Jan. 2 deadline, which was delayed two months in the “fiscal-cliff” deal.
================================================== ==============
Again, suck my cock. I won't even touch the issue of why DOD needs 800,000 civilians :rolleyes:, but let's get some facts. We spend a trillion dollars on defense, and military spending is about 2/3 of that. We are out of Iraq and total government spending went up? Huh? The military budget also went up including OCO (overseas contingency operations, aka war spending). Huh? How does that add up?
Sequestration would require $46 billion in cuts this year in DOD according to this article. If you use just military spending from 2012, that is a 6.8% reduction. We're out of Iraq and we can't reduce DOD by 7%?? I think that number is overstated to begin with, but still... why would we still spend that money?
Listen, I am the first to say "support the troops" but this is all bullshit.