Furloughs at the Agriculture Department are looking increasingly unlikely following Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack's request to shift funding and the department's ongoing efforts to find alternative cost savings. A USDA spokeswoman confirmed last week that the department wouldn't have to furlough employees in either the Farm Service Agency or the department's Rural Development division.
The threat of furloughs is hanging heavy over tens of thousands of federal workers who say they won't be able to pay the bills if forced to stay home for five to 15 days. So, Mike Causey wants to know, is there light at the end of this tunnel?
Furloughs are supposed to save money. But if you wait until the last-minute to notify workers it can be quite costly as the Internal Revenue Service has found out, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey reports.
President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers.
Currently deployed units and those behind them are fully trained and equipped, the services say. But those next in line "aren't doing much." The fiscal 2013 budget also may be too little, too late in some ship repair and maintenance efforts.
When politicians created the sequestration monster, it may have seemed like a good idea at the time. But now that it's here, nobody wants to take credit for it, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And politicians who insisted that the cuts be across-the-board are now demanding agencies exempt certain programs and people from furloughs.
Host Mike Causey will talk furloughs with Federal Career Experts owner John Grobe, and hiring, retirement backlog, and more with Stephen Losey and Sean Reilly from the Federal Times. May 1, 2013
If you are a federal worker, you are certainly aware of the Washington-based series, Sequestration: The Soap Opera. Normally such a drama would have little audience outside the Washington Beltway, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. But it is being noticed in other places because so many contractors are being hit by furloughs too.
If somebody said they could save you nearly $1,800 but that it would cost you $61,000, you probably wouldn't take the deal, right? Unfortunately, the White House and Congress have signed off on it in the form of furloughs, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says.
The House is expected to quickly pass a bill the Senate approved last night that would end furloughs for air traffic controllers. The legislation gives the Federal Aviation Administration the authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts flush with funds into other programs. This would would help to prevent reductions in operations and staffing through the end of fiscal year 2013.
Getting furloughed is a very personal thing, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. For some feds, it will amount to no more than a series of three-day weekends. Others say even losing a couple of days pay will break their bank. Still more think it is a political stunt and a heckuva way to run a government. So what's your take?
Army leaders say the belated passage of a 2013 budget helped this year's fiscal picture, but the service still is more than $15 billion short of funds. If sequestration continues, the service will shrink by at least 100,000 soldiers.
The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says offering federal employees an extra loan option through their Thrift Savings Plans to cushion the impact of furloughs would require too much effort to implement and may not help the employees all that much. Several federal-employee unions have lobbied the board to add a second general purpose loan option to help cushion the blow of furloughs. But at a Employee Thrift Advisory Council meeting April 22, the board quashed the idea, citing the complexity surrounding the changes.
A week after the bombings in Boston and the catastrophic explosion in Texas, key federal agencies have unveiled or are refining their plans to furlough tens of thousands of workers, including those who protect the country and those who collect the money to pay the bills, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey says. And this makes sense because...
The White House tells "a majority" of career staff not to come to work. It's the first of 10 furlough days over the next six months. Labor, FAA and EPA also have or are furloughing employees.