Statement on Civilian Defense Employee Furloughs

Statement

U.S. Representative Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01), member of the House Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on the civilian defense employee furloughs, which start this week:

"The Department of Defense says these furloughs are affecting nearly 13,000 of our civilian defense employees in Hawaii, resulting in more than $42 million in lost wages for their families. On average, that means $1,100 less in each paycheck for groceries, childcare, gas, and other necessities. These hardworking men and women, who provide critical services to support our country's defense capabilities, should not be paying the price for Congress' inability to develop a compromise on a balanced approach to reducing the deficit.

"The impact will also be felt at our bases statewide where important services will be cut, maintenance will be delayed, and our ability to recruit new employees to replace our retiring workforce will be hampered. These consequences will affect our military readiness.

"Furloughs will continue to be the reality every fiscal year unless sequestration is repealed. Allowing sequestration to remain in place is not a solution to getting our fiscal house in order, and I will continue to urge my colleagues to come together, in a bipartisan fashion, to find a long-term solution to protect our country and support our civilian workforce."

Furloughs will begin this week and will continue at the rate of one per week through the end of the fiscal year. DoD says a civilian employee in Hawaii who is furloughed for 11 days will face an average salary cut of $3,300, which is about a 20% loss of pay from now until the end of the fiscal year.

The Pentagon is planning to send Congress a letter outlining the impact of the additional $52 billion in sequestration cuts scheduled to take effect when the new fiscal year begins on October 1.

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