Here’s What Federal Budget Cuts Mean for Defense Workers

If the United States Congress does not find a solution to avoid the mandatory budget cuts before the sequestration delay expires on March 1, the Pentagon will have to resort to decreasing its civilian staff.

Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters from the Associated Press on Friday that hundreds of thousands of Pentagon civilian employees would face furloughs and reduced paychecks in April. The United States Department of Defense has approximately 800,000 civilian employees currently, and while none of them have been officially notified of the furlough that would cut their workweek by one day, the Pentagon has estimated that it would save $5 billion over the course of the current budget year.

In addition to the furloughs, the Pentagon will also be cutting its entire 46,000-person temporary civilian workforce, a process that has begun already…