Hopes have been raised that DoD will reduce the number of furlough days being imposed on some 650,000 employees there who started taking 11 days early this monththrough September, typically spread out as one day a week. Unnamed officials told the Associated Press that the number might be reduced to as few as six as the budget situation plays out, although formally the Pentagon is saying that no decisions have been. DoD is expected to announce soon its thinking on possible RIFs, furloughs and other cost-saving steps should it have to keep operating at reduced levels in the next fiscal year; that could include the final word on the ongoing furloughs, as well. Several agencies have reduced the number of furlough days they initially announced, in some cases after having started them. DoD itself early in the year had said it expected 22 days but the math changed substantially when Congress in March enacted a budget measure allowing the Pentagon to reprogram some funding. Following that change, DoD recalculated and at first said it expected 14 but then reduced the number to 11 and said there was a chance they could be cut further. The recently enacted House language to prevent furloughs at DoD would apply only in the budget year starting in October, and the Senate has yet to take up that bill, the annual defense appropriations.
