The
Bureau of Indian Affairs is warning employees to expect furloughs of up to 22 workdays due to the sequestration of the federal budget.
BIA employees received a letter on Wednesday that said the furloughs will start May 3 and continue on an intermittent basis through September 21. Full-time employees face the possibility of going nearly three workweeks without pay, although the agency said it will try to limit the impact to 10 workdays, or 80 hours.
"We recognize the difficult personal financial implications of any furlough, no matter how large or small," James N. Burckman, the director of the BIA's Office of Human Capital Management, said in the letter.
The letter is another reminder of the major impact of sequestration in Indian Country. Tribal programs at the BIA and at other federal agencies are losing more than $200 million as a result of automatic cuts that went into effect on March 1.
With more than 8,300 employees at locations across the country, the BIA's furloughs will affect people on the ground in reservations in dozens of states. Details are still being worked out but the
Rosebud Sioux Tribe of South Dakota, for example, was told last month that workers at the local agency office could be furloughed one day a week,
according to a post on the tribe's official Twitter account.
Employees at the
Bureau of Indian Education won't be spared either. The sequester is already forcing reservation schools to plan for cutbacks in staff, services and the number of school days so furloughs will bring an additional punch.
BIA Employee Furlough Letter:
Employee Furlough Proposal
(April 3, 2013)
Sault Tribe losing $1.7 in federal funds under
sequestration (4/3)
Letter: Exempt the Indian Health Service from
sequestration (4/3)
DOI bars non-essential travel under
sequestration of budget (3/27)
Fort Peck Tribes feel sequester's hit on
education and health (3/22)
Editorial:
IHS not exempt from federal budget sequestration (3/21)
Schools on reservations are first to feel cuts
under sequester (3/20)
Minnesota tribes
forced to cut back at schools with sequester (3/19)
Tribes cut back on law enforcement under budget
sequester (3/18)
HUD cuts Indian home
loan guarantees due to budget sequester (3/12)
IHS due to take bigger cut than expected with
budget sequester (3/12)
School district
on Navajo Nation braces for cuts with sequester (3/6)
Tribes brace for cuts in federal funds under budget
sequester (3/1)
Eastern Cherokees
prepare for budget hit with sequestration (2/27)
Indian programs at Interior face $130M cut under
sequester (2/26)
Agency leaders detail
effects of sequester on Indian programs (2/15)
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