Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said in a message Wednesday that he’s notified Congress of planned furloughs for about 800,000 civilian employees at the Pentagon if the automatic spending cuts go into effect next week, Bloomberg News reported.
Panetta said in a message Wednesday to about 800,000 Department of Defense employees that the “vast majority” of them would have to take unpaid leave and that they would get at least 30 days’ notice if that is to happen.
“We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DoD personnel but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited,” Panetta said. “The president has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions.”
