Several more agencies have cut back on their planned numbers of furlough days, continuing a trend that has existed through the summer. The latest are: the EPA, which several times earlier had cut its projections and most recently canceled its last scheduled furlough day that had been set for Friday (August 30); and OMB, which canceled two days but still plans to take one more, symbolically on the last day of the fiscal year, September 30. Also recently HUD canceled the last two of its planned days, including one that had been planned for Friday, while the IRS postponed but so far hasn’t canceled the closing day it had scheduled for Friday. MSPB meanwhile has said that it will start to tackle after Labor Day the roughly 30,000 furlough appeals it has received from DoD employees. That workload is about six times the typical number of appeals MSPB receives annually, and the agency has said it is looking for ways to speed up what looks to be a lengthy process. DoD has warned repeatedly of the potential for more furloughs plus job cuts if its budget for the upcoming fiscal year continues at sequestered levels; most recently a planning document being circulated cites the potential for a 6,000-position reduction starting in October. That would amount to less than 1 percent of the workforce, however, and DoD has standing authority to offer buyouts and early retirement. Such incentives plus not filling vacancies created by normal attrition traditionally have greatly reduced the number of persons who actually are laid off in a RIF.
