Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrote a letter dated Wednesday to House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) warning that if sequestration goes into effect, it will cause furloughs and “do real harm” to national security.
“If faced with sequestration, the Defense Department will be forced to forego critical objectives,” Panetta wrote, calling the cuts “destructive” and saying “the Department will have to consider furloughs across the entire defense civilian workforce in order to meet the fiscal target mandated by sequestration.”
He warned that as a result, “the workload on each employee and the requirements for each position that will result from such furloughs will be increased beyond what can reasonably be achieved.”
“The furloughs contemplated by this notice will do real harm to our national security,” Panetta wrote.
