The Defense Department would be forced to cut 108,000 civilian employees from its work force next year if automatic budget cuts take effect Jan. 1, according to a new report.
Defense contractors would see more gradual cuts as existing contracts run out and are not renewed, according to the Aug. 24 report by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments.
The cuts — formally known as sequestration — are required by last year’s Budget Control Act unless Congress and the Obama administration agree on a path to reducing future budget deficits by $1.2 trillion through 2021.
DoD would need to cut its 791,000-person work force by 13.7 percent in fiscal 2013 to achieve its share of the reductions, which the report estimates at $56.5 billion, or 10.3 percent.
“The longer DoD waits to reduce its civilian work force once sequestration goes into effect, the deeper it will have to cut civilians for the remainder of the fiscal year,” according to the report.
The total DoD budget would be cut from $546 billion to $491 billion in fiscal 2013, according to the report.
Defense contractors would be shielded from immediate cuts but would eventually see significantly reduced spending on contracts about three years into sequestration, according to the report.
DoD would also have to cut fiscal 2013 budgets for operations and maintenance by 6.9 percent, procurement by 3.5 percent and family housing by 6.9 percent, according to the report. President Obama has said he would exempt active-duty military personnel from the cuts.