Hagel says 20 per cent pay cut on military's civilian workers to continue next year

Taipei News.Net Monday 22nd July, 2013

"Those are the facts of life...," he said about furloughs, the unpaid leave workers are scheduled to take through the end of the fiscal year.

"We're going to have the furlough... situation until the end of 2013. 2013 is over," Hagel told about 300 Defense Department employees, most of them middle-aged civilians, at an Air Force reception hall on a military base in Charleston.

"(The fiscal) 2014 begins Oct. 1. If sequestration continues, which as you all know is the law of the land, then probably we'd see that kick in Jan 1 that $52 billion cut for the rest of 2014."

Further increasing their worries, the secretary said future layoffs were also possible for the department's civilian workforce of more than 800,000 employees if Congress fails to stem the cuts in the next budget year, which starts Oct 1.

He was speaking at a town hall meeting at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida.

The defence secretary has been on a tour of military bases to spread the message of the harmful effects of sequestration, especially on the civilian workforce that's taking one-day-per-week furloughs through the end of the fiscal year.

The Pentagon budget is being cut $37 billion this year; the furlough of civilian workers will save about $2 billion.

"Do I think it's going to get better? As I said, I have to lead this institution not based on what I think, what I hope, what I believe, may be. I've got to prepare this institution and our people for the facts of life and the reality as it is and the law that is now in place," he said.

The furloughs have led to more than 650,000 Department of Defense workers losing 20 per cent of their pay over the next three months.

Hagel said there have been 150,000 exemptions to furlough, based on priorities related to safety and security.

"When you take a $37 billion cut, that wasn't anticipated, wasn't planned for, now, you can have flexibility in the reprogramming of accounts, which we need, which we ask for all the time with Congress, but that doesn't ... make up for the $37 billion," he said.

He said he was deeply sorry for the strain the crunch has put on families but stressed he would not slash troops' training or other readiness budgets any further to prevent huge gaps in national security.

"We took a $37 billion cut this year and you see the consequences of that. And, if you take a $52 billion cut there'll be continued significant and serious reductions. We are preparing for different options, but I think it's fair to say, if we're going to be living with an additional $52 billion cut there are going to continue to be bad news with every aspect of our budget."

"If the $52 billion cut remains in place, there will be further cuts in personnel, make no mistake about that. I don't have any choice."

Source: http://www.taipeinews.net/index.php/sid/215992803/scat/b8de8e630faf3631

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