Virginia congressional delegation urges Pentagon to limit impact of furloughs

Members of Virginia’s congressional delegation today sent a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel expressing bipartisan unity for immediate action to avert furloughs to the Defense Department’s civilian workforce, citing the potentially disproportionate impact on the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bicameral, bipartisan group of members urged Secretary Hagel to give the military services the flexibility to further reduce expected furloughs.

Virginia Sens. Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, and Reps. Rob Wittman (VA-1), Scott Rigell (VA-2), Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-3), J. Randy Forbes (VA-4), Robert Hurt (VA-5), Bob Goodlatte (VA-6), Jim Moran (VA-8), Morgan Griffith (VA-9), Frank Wolf (VA-10), and Gerry Connolly (VA-11) wrote, in part:

“Although we applaud the recent decision to reduce likely furlough days from 22 to 14 days, thousands of Virginians still face a significant loss of pay, which will have a particularly disproportionate impact on the citizens of our state.  We sincerely hope DoD will do all it can to lessen the impact of possible furloughs on our civil servants and believe there are additional steps that can be taken to support this effort.”