11 furlough days to begin on Fort Bliss in early July

Good news came May 14 for civilian workers at Fort Bliss and other military facilities across the U.S.

The Pentagon said it plans to furlough about 680,000 of its civilian employees for 11 days through the end of this fiscal year.

The shortened furlough period would begin no earlier than July 8.

Budget cuts from the federal sequester initially forced the Pentagon to warn that most of its civilians would be forced to take 22 unpaid days off.

But when lawmakers approved a new spending bill at the end of March, the furlough days were cut to 14.

“The reduction in furlough days to 11 is certainly good news for Fort Bliss,” Fort Bliss spokesman Maj. Joe Buccino said in a statement. ” The furlough period will now begin no earlier than July 8th, which gives our civilian employees more time to prepare. This is certainly a smaller problem than we were dealing with two months ago. It is, of course, still a problem. We fully realize furloughs will be painful for our civilian employees and their families. Our Army Community Services is prepared to
provide financial counseling to all of our civilian employees.”

More than 11,000 civilians work at Fort Bliss. Theyare the janitors, the food-service workers, the landscapers, and others.