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The Pentagon will send furlough notices to civilian employees in the next two weeks. Defense components would not be spared from furloughs, regardless of any other efforts they take to offset sequestration.
The Pentagon says furloughs for nearly all of its 780,000 civilian employees would begin in April if sequestration goes into effect. DoD would grant limited exceptions for civilians in combat zones or those who are critical to preserving life and safety. Political appointees would also be exempt. The Pentagon also released a list of states where furloughs would have the most effect.
The Pentagon's budget chief, Robert Hale, told reporters that the economic impact of sequestration would be felt nationwide. The biggest potential losses, in term of total civilian payroll dollars, would be in Virginia, California, Maryland, Texas and Georgia, he said. Hale said the unpaid leaves for civilian workers would begin in late April and would save $4 billion to $5 billion if extended through the end of the budget year, Sept. 30.
When lawmakers and the White House kicked sequestration two months down the road, they also made changes to how the cuts would be calculated. The Pentagon estimates the impact on the Defense budget would be gentler than before.
The Defense Department's undersecretary of Defense (Comptroller), Robert Hale, told a House Armed Services Committee hearing last week that Defense officials have only "limited flexibility" to handle the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts, known as sequestration, that go into effect next year.
Robert Hale, the military's CFO, said reductions in force would cost more money than the Defense Department would save. But hiring a freeze and involuntary unpaid furloughs would be likely for civilians.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta requested that all of his department's agencies have their auditable financial statements to him by 2014.
DoD's top financial manager says the Pentagon is pressing forward to meet Congressional edicts for auditable financial statements. But constant federal budget emergencies are sapping huge amounts of energy from the financial workforce tasked with preparing for audit.
The Air Force's comptroller poured $1 billion into a new enterprise resource planning system with virtually nothing to show for it after seven years. The service is restricting the ERP with details to come in the next few weeks.
The Pentagon is telling lawmakers military retirees' share of health care costs is going to have to increase if it's going to meet the budget targets Congress and the President handed over with last year's budget control act.
In reports and testimony to Congress, the Government Accountability Office finds DoD has built a credible plan to meet a Congressionally-mandated full financial audit by 2017. However, the audit agency is skeptical the military branches will be able to implement the plan in time.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said Thursday he will include language implementing the Defense Department\'s request to increase insurance fees for military retirees. That position is at odds with the panel\'s subcommittee on military personnel, which on Wednesday unanimously approved language which would prohibit the increase.
Services and components in the Defense Department are being told they will be permitted to retain any savings they find through better management of acquisition programs. Undersecretary of Defense Ashton Carter says the decision would provide an incentive for program managers to make effective use of a now-mandatory initiative known as \"will-cost and should-cost management.\"
Military officials detail the impact of a full-year continuing resolution on DoD. Defense Deputy Secretary Lynn said the department would meet payroll and medical bills, but have to cut acquisition and training programs.