Pentagon Laying Off 46,000 Workers
The Defense Department announced Friday that it has begun firing most of its 46,000 temporary personnel in advance of automatic budget cuts of about $50 billion that are expected in March.
The Defense Department announced Friday that it has begun firing most of its 46,000 temporary personnel in advance of automatic budget cuts of about $50 billion that are expected in March.
Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the Pentagon was “running out of time” to accommodate potential changes to its budget brought about by the so-called fiscal cliff, in which lawmakers pushed budget decisions two months down the road.
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Mr Carter said he was directing each military service to produce detailed plans by 1 February on reducing short-term spending.
He also said the Pentagon could force its 800,000 civilian employees to lose one day of work per week without pay from April, in a move that would save $5bn.
The Pentagon and other parts of the US government face across-the-board cuts on 1 March, with an estimated $500bn decrease in the defence budget over 10 years.
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