Though the defense department is cutting back the number of furlough days for civilain emplouees and said Monday it will not be doing furlughs next year, Rep. Colleen Hanabusa wrote Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel to minimize the impact of furloughs on Hawaii, presumably by making other states take on more furloughs.

The continuing resolution budget Congress passed last month helped ease some of the impact of he sequestration budget cuts on defense by allowing it to shift money into its operations and maintenance account, which faced a shortfall.

As a result, the defense department announced it is cutting the number of furlough days from 22 to 14. According to the Hill, it will be looking at other cuts next year instead of doing furloughs:

Still, the Continuing Resolution didn’t completely do away with the need for furloughs and Hanabusa in a letter to Secretary of Defense Chuch Hagel said she  is “concerned about the guidance that Congress has received to date mandating that all civilian furloughs be applied in the same manner across the Department of Defense.  The value and positioning of Hawaii must be considered as you initiate a strategic review of the Department’s priorities.

 “Critical tasks, including but not limited to maintenance on our nuclear submarines at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard and ensuring the quality of troop equipment at Schofield Barracks, must not be performed below the high standard our civilian employees set day in and day out.  Training support for our Marines at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, and repairs to the critical heavy lift capability given to us by the Air Force’s fleet at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam cannot afford to be short-changed.  These efforts and assets directly support our forward deployed troops and mission in the Asia Pacific region.”

 Hanabusa’s letter asked that the Secretary of Defense to be flexible in ordering furloughs. “In determining how to make the cuts sequestration demands, I urge you to use all available flexibility that comes from cuts being at the program level within the Operations & Maintenance accounts, versus on the account level,” she said.

She said in a statement: “Reducing furlough days from 22 to 14 is an improvement, but we can and must to do more. Our failure to resolve sequestration during the debate on the continuing resolution or provide further flexibility to federal agencies to implement cuts still results in thousands of civilian Department of Defense employees in Hawaii facing furloughs in short period through the end of the fiscal year. Furloughing workers for an average of one day per week means that a substantial amount of work is being delayed or canceled.”

The furloughs are expected to go out in early May, with furloughs starting in mid-June over the final seven pay periods of the fiscal year.  

She said “individual civilian employees would lose an average of about $4,500 over the last 3 months of the fiscal year, extracting over $82 million our still-recovering state economy. If we allow sequestration to continue, these furloughs, these employees, and these economic impacts are just the beginning.” 

Politically, the Continuing Resolution marks one difference between her and Sen. Brian Schatz, who Hanabusa may challenge in next year’s Senate special election.

Hanabusa voted against the Continuing Resolution saying it still called for defense cuts and furloughs. Schatz voted for it, reasoning it eased the furloughs and the temporary spending bill was needed to keep the government running past March 27.

Hanabusa highlighted her position on the vote in this op-ed.

— Kery Murakami