U.S. Rep Barber's Statement on First Round of Defense Civilian Furloughs

Statement

U.S. Rep. Ron Barber today issued the following statement as civilian workers in the Department of Defense were forced to take their first of 11 unpaid furlough days.

The furloughs have been forced because of sequestration, the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts that Barber, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, has harshly criticized and opposed.

At the three military installations in Southern Arizona -- Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Fort Huachuca and the 162nd Fighter Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard -- there are more than 5,000 civilian employees. Nearly all are impacted.

Earlier this year, Barber joined 124 other House members in urging Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to make merit-based instead of indiscriminate decisions about furloughs.

Barber also introduced legislation to cut congressional pay by 20 percent, calling on Congress to share the financial burden of sequestration. He noted that that it is unfair for civilians and other federal workers to receive pay cuts when Congress is not forced to make a similar sacrifice.

Barber's statement today:

Sequestration has caused 11 furlough days for civilian workers in the Department of Defense and is a clear sign that Congress has failed to act.

For the three-month period that begins today, some 650,000 dedicated employees -- including 8,500 in Arizona -- will be forced to take a 20 percent pay cut. These men and women are essential to our national defense -- and this forced pay cut is harmful to the employees and to this nation.

Sequestration is a clear sign that Congress has failed to act responsibly -- a failure that is unfairly hurting the men and women in the Department of Defense, the Border Patrol and in numerous other federal agencies. They don't deserve to bear the brunt of congressional failures.

These cuts also will spread throughout the communities where these men and women live and work as they are forced to reduce their own spending to deal with this unfair pay cut. That will be a financial blow to many small businesses.

My colleagues in Congress must come together to reach a bipartisan agreement to end sequestration cuts. We instead must do the hard work of going through the federal budget to identify and cut programs that are ineffective, wasteful or unnecessary. We must work to balance the budget, but sequestration is simply the wrong way to get this important job done.

Source