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Are Federal Furloughs The New Normal?
Last March Congress let the budget axe fall and with it federal agencies lost more $80 billion in funding. For federal employees budget cuts translated into furloughs. Agencies decreed a summer full of unpaid leave. In many cases that meant a week of no pay. As federal workers take their final furlough days for the year, many are bracing for what's next. 2014 is set to bring another year of heavy cuts meaning more furloughs, more reductions and possibly layoffs. Once again it all depends on Congress and whether lawmakers turn off the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester.
Analysis
In Depth: Federal News Radio
Even during sequestration the Defense Department doesn't plan to sacrifice its global presence. But it is considering new ways to administer the bureaucracy that global reach requires. Some of the military's combatant commands might disappear altogether, and some might have their geographical boundaries redrawn. For now, it's all speculation, and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel says it'll only be necessary if sequestration stays in place for the full ten years. Yet, it is one of the ideas DoD is examining in the wake of Hagel's recent Strategic Choices and Management Review.
In the News
Surrounded: How the U.S. Is Encircling China with Military Bases
The refurbished airfields also hearken back to the Cold War era, when American units were constantly rotated in and out of Europe to keep the Soviets at bay. To counter a new foe, the Air Force will continuously deploy units based in the United States and the northern Pacific to a string of airfields in Southeast Asia.
In the News
Reshaping for Tomorrow
The US military services need to take advantage of the upcoming Quadrennial Defense Review to carve out new, forward-looking missions or risk becoming simply smaller—and increasingly irrelevant—versions of themselves, according to Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Senior Fellow Mark Gunzinger.
Analysis
Shaping America’s Future Military – Toward a New Force Planning Construct
C-Span's full coverage of Mark Gunzinger's presentation at the Mitchell Institute for Airpower Studies at the Air Force Association on the future of America's Military, including how commanders in the field and in Washington should look at strategic and budgetary planning.
In the News
China Precision Strike
China's military is building conventional precision-guided missiles in an effort to become Asia's "hegemon" and force the U.S. military to operate thousands of miles from China's coasts, according to a study made public this week.