Sequestration Tracker: Guide to agency furloughs

Friday - 3/1/2013, 5:49pm EST

In the weeks leading up to March 1, agencies across government have painted increasingly dire pictures of life under sequestration. Along with hiring freezes, spending reductions, and curtailed travel and training, many agencies are planning for furloughs.

Below, find out how agencies have said they'll slash their budgets to comply with the $85 billion in across-the-board cuts.

Have more information about how agencies plan to implement furloughs and other cost-cutting measures? Or, do you have information about an agency not on this list? Click here to email us and let us know.

LAST UPDATED: MAY 6, 2013

Agriculture Department

UPDATE: Officials at the Agriculture Department now say the agency does not expect furloughs of USDA employees this year. The Farm Service agency was able to avoid furloughs through a hiring freeze and cutting spending on operating expenses and contracts. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack asked Congress for the authority to shift funding from other budget accounts to avert furloughs in the Rural Development division. Earlier this year, in a fiscal 2013 appropriations bill, Congress approved funding to avert furloughs of employees in the department's Food Safety and Inspection Service.

Commerce Department

Commerce says the department's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would see "significant impacts." This includes furloughs of 2,600 employees, another 2,700 positions left unfilled and reductions in the contractor workforce by 1,400. The National Institute of Standards and Technology would face reductions in spending on grants, contracts, equipment procurement and would be forced to let positions go unfilled and to defer maintenance and repair of NIST facilities.

Customs and Border Protection

UPDATE: Customs and Border Protection officials have postponed the issuing of furlough notices to 60,000 employees because of new funding granted in the 2013 appropriations bill. The agency said it is now "reevaluating" the need for furloughs and the the planned elimination of administratively uncontrollable overtime, or AUO.

Defense Department

UPDATE: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel decided March 27 to cut the number of furlough days for DoD civilian employees from 22 to 14.

The Defense Department had planned to furlough nearly all of its civilian workforce on a one-day-per-week basis.

The military services and defense agencies have already instituted civilian hiring freezes and cut spending on travel, training and supplies.

Employees paid by non-appropriated funds are not expected to be furloughed. Other employees exempt from furloughs include: civilians deployed in combat zones, foreign nationals, Senate-confirmed political employees and civilians who are required to maintain safety of life or property. While military pay will be unaffected by sequestration, DoD says readiness and training will suffer.

Education Department

"The sequester would ... likely require the department to furlough many of its own employees for multiple days," Education Secretary Arne Duncan testified before Congress. However, Duncan did not provide a specific number of employees who would be affected by furloughs.

Environmental Protection Agency

UPDATE: In a note to staff obtained by Federal News Radio, EPA Acting Administrator Bob Perciasepe said each EPA employee will be furloughed less than 10 days, with the number reduced to no more than 79 hours for fiscal year 2013.

According to the email, EPA will reexamine its budget in mid-June to determine if there is flexibility in how many furlough hours employees will be required to take during the rest of the fiscal year. Right now, it appears that it will not be more than 79 hours total.

The email went on to say that EPA will continue to employ stringent controls on hiring, limiting hiring to address critical needs.

EPA is also putting a hold on discretionary monetary awards for employees and other incentives, but the agency will be able to offer time off awards and quality step increases, albeit under a constrained budget.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

EEOC says it will need to furlough employees for as many as 10 days beginning April 22. The furloughs will run in two phases. Employees will be required to take 40 furloughs hours (about five days) before July 2. Agency officials will then will review the budget during a two-week time period and determine how much of the remaining 46 hours will be needed to be taken to comply with the spending reductions required by sequestration.

Federal Aviation Administration

Update: Congress approved a bill April 26 that allows the agency to use funding originally slated for airport improvement to avert the furlough of air traffic controllers.

In a notice of proposed furlough, the FAA said it plans to furlough full-time employees for about 11 days to begin no earlier than April 26 and lasting through the end of the fiscal year. FAA had originally intended furloughs to begin April 7 but has pushed back the implementation date.

FBI
UPDATE: On April 24, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Justice would not need to furlough employees during the current fiscal year. He said the department was able to avoid furloughs thanks to money it received from recently enacted legislation combined with a hiring freeze and cuts to contracting and other costs.

Food and Drug Administration
UPDATE: The Food and Drug Administration says that it will not have to cut back on inspections of food-processing plants. Earlier this year, the agency estimated that as many as 2,100 plant inspections would need to be cancelled.

Government Accountability Office
Under sequestration, GAO would be forced to forego its hiring plans for a third year in a row. That would shrink GAO's workforce to below 2,900 — a level it hasn't seen since the 1930s, according to congressional testimony by Comptroller General Gene Dodaro. GAO would also be forced to cut funding for performance awards, travel, and IT enhancement programs. GAO says furloughs are last resort.

Government Printing Office

Public Printer Davita Vance-Cook told a House Appropriations subcommittee GPO is taking several steps to prepare for sequestration. GPO plans to implement freezes in a number of areas: hiring, overtime, bonuses, training, travel and nonessential maintenance. Employee furloughs would be a last resort, Vance-Cook told Congress. If furloughs are implemented, GPO would also reduce its contractor workforce as well, she said.

Health and Human Services Department

Because many HHS activities are carried out through grants that are typcially awarded toward the end of the fiscal year, HHS program managers are working with grantees and other partners to manage the cuts. All Medicare payments to service providers (with a few exceptions) are subject to a 2 percent cut. HHS has not issued any official furlough notices and the agency has not made any specific decisions about implementing furloughs in the future, according to an HHS spokeswoman.

Homeland Security Department

The Homeland Security Department "has examined every human resource tool available to reduce expenditures," a spokeswoman told Federal News Radio. That includes hiring freezes, eliminated or reduced overtime and the elimination of employee performance awards. Furloughs may be necessary, the spokeswoman said, "absent reprogramming requests and to minimize impacts on core missions."

Housing and Urban Development

UPDATE: According to HUD spokesman Jereon Brown, all of HUD's 9,000 employees (including career feds) will take seven unpaid furlough days on the following dates: May 10, May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22, Aug. 16 and Aug. 30. HUD will notify employees at least 30 days before the first furlough day but no employees have been formally notified yet. Brown added HUD conducted a town hall meeting with employees and is working closely with employee unions on implementing the furloughs.

In a memo to staff sent Feb. 28, Deputy HUD Secretary Maurice Jones said HUD does not plan to start implementing furloughs before May. "We will require the same number of furlough days for all HUD employees and try not to schedule more than one furlough day per pay period," he wrote. To help offset the number of furlough days, HUD will also institute a departmentwide hiring freeze and cut spending on travel and training.

Interior Department

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said thousands of Interior employees would be furloughed, while thousands more seasonal workers would not be hired.

Internal Revenue Service

UPDATE: The Internal Revenue Service announced it plans to furlough all of its 90,000 employees on five specific furlough days through the end of August. The furlough days, on which public-facing operations will close, are May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22 and Aug. 30.

Justice Department

UPDATE: On April 24, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that Justice would not need to furlough employees during the current fiscal year. He said the department was able to avoid furloughs thanks to money it received from recently enacted legislation combined with a hiring freeze and cuts to contracting and other costs.

Earlier, Holder said would postpone until mid-April a decision about whether to furlough any Justice Department employees. In a memo to all employees, Holder says the department is still working on how best to deal with automatic budget cuts of $1.6 billion that became effective March 1. Earlier, Holder announced furloughs of federal prison staffers would be averted by moving $150 million from other Justice Department accounts.

Labor Department

Federal Times reported that 4,700 Labor Department employees received furlough notices on March 5. That accounts for approximately 28 percent of the agency's total workforce. According to Acting Secretary Seth Harris, the department is reducing travel and training expenses. DoL has also halted performance awards and will curtail some contract spending. "But it is clear from the size of the sequester that not all agencies will be able to find the savings required," Harris said. "These agencies will be forced to place staff on unpaid furloughs."

NASA

Update: NASA does not plan to resort furloughs in the short term, a NASA spokesman told Federal News Radio. To comply with the budget cuts, NASA has reduced travel and conference attendance and has reviewed spending on education and public-outreach activities. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told lawmakers in recent budget hearings that NASA may have to consider furloughs if sequestration continues into fiscal 2014.

NOAA

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Acting Administrator Kathryn Sullivan notified her staff in an April 15 email that employees would be furloughed on four specific days: July 5, July 19, Aug. 5 and Aug. 30. She also said NOAA had started furlough planning with employee unions. In addition, National Weather Service employees would be included in these furloughs.

National Science Foundation

Director of the National Science Foundation Subra Suresh said NSF aims to protect "core principles" — such as the NSF workforce and science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) workforce development efforts.However, that means grant spending and research and development funding would suffer, he told the Senate Appropriations Committee. NSF would also likely terminate approximately $35 million in contracts. "This would directly lead to layoffs of dozens of direct scientific and technical staff, with larger impacts at supplier companies," Suresh wrote in a letter to Congress.

Nuclear Regulatory Commission

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it will not furlough staff because of sequestration nor will the cuts impact the agency's safety mission. However, the agency will be forced to forego new grants to universities and would delay IT infrastructure upgrades.

Office of Management and Budget

Furloughs for 480 employees have started at the Office of Management and Budget. OMB officials said employees will have to take a total of 10 furlough days starting April 21 through Sept. 30.

Office of Personnel Management

UPDATE: The Office of Personnel Management says sequestration cuts have forced the agency to curtail call-center hours and to suspend overtime hours for its Retirement Services employees. That could lead to further delays in OPM's retirement-processing efforts.

Office of Personnel Management officials have, so far, made no plans to furlough employees. OPM has implemented a hiring freeze and will seek other operational and administrative cost reductions to avoid furloughs.

Small Business Administration

Employees at the Small Business Administration will likely be spared from sequestration furloughs, according to Karen Mills, the head of the agency. Mills said a round of early retirements allowed the agency to cut staff, negating the need for furloughs.

Smithsonian Institution

The Smithsonian, the world's largest museum complex, is prepared to absorb the sequestration cuts without furloughing employees or reducing hours at its facilities. The Smithsonian will freeze hiring and reduce training, research and travel. In addition, the Smithsonian will delay maintenance and new construction, and reduce its use of contractors.

Social Security Administration

The Social Security Administration has instituted a hiring freeze, limited overtime, and reduced agency travel. Because of this, SSA hopes to avoid furloughs, Acting SSA Commissioner Carolyn Colvin said in a note to staff.

State Department

UPDATE: The State Department now says it will not need to furlough any employees this fiscal year due to sequestration. State's share of the budget cuts — $400 million — ended up being less than half what original estimates called for. Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy has taken steps to curtail spending, including reducing travel and conference spending, filling only one of every two new job vacancies and adjusting building temperatures.

Transportation Department

In a letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said sequestration would be particularly damaging for the Federal Aviation Administration. Nearly 47,000 FAA employees will be furloughed approximately one day per pay period through the end of the fiscal year, LaHood said, with the maximum being two furlough days per pay period.

Air traffic controllers were furloughed, causing delays around the country, which resulted in complaints from the public. In response, Congress rushed through legislation that gave the Transportation Department the ability to shift money around to prevent the controllers from continuing to be furloughed.

Transportation Security Administration

UPDATE: TSA Deputy Administrator John W. Halinski told a House Oversight and Government Reform committee recently that TSA does not anticipate any furloughs. The agency reduced spending through "managed hiring practices and control of overtime," Halinski told lawmakers.

Veterans Affairs Department

The Veterans Affairs Department is mostly exempt from sequestration. However, VA's administrative costs will be subject to sequestration.

(Compiled by Jack Moore)

Tags: sequestration, budget, furloughs