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ROY — New information released from the Department of Defense Tuesday announced next Friday could be the final day of the furlough for civilian workers. The mandatory, unpaid furlough days have been reduced from 11 to six days.
This Friday will mark the fifth day of the furlough, and around 650,000 civilian workers will gain back five days of work and pay as a result. However, one father of three said that it is the least that the government can do to compensate them.
Randy Miller has been at home and out of work every Friday since July. He works in the civil engineering department at Hill Air Force Base. He said the shortened furloughs came as no surprise to him. He even forgot to tell his wife when the reductions happened.
"I guess I wasn't too exited because I neglected to tell her," Randy said. Randy's wife, Andrea, said that her husband handled the announcement with hesitation because he said that he would "believe it when he sees it."
The family had already suffered through a 20 percent pay cut as a result of the furlough.
"20 percent pay cut — that's huge," Andrea said. "I mean, that's almost as much as I bring in."
Andrea began working extra shifts at her job to make up for the smaller income.
The Department of Defense officials said that the reduced furlough days are a result of the Pentagon cutting military expenses by $1.5 billion.
"If DOD combines all the reductions I described, including significant cuts to the military's size and capability, the savings fall well short of meeting sequester level cuts," said Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.
The original 11 furloughs were expected to save around two billion dollars for the Department of Defense, but Randy said it shouldn't come from his pocket.
"Does it really have to come to this for them to find these problems or lack of efficiencies?" he said. "How they address the unfair treatment prior will be the next chapter. We'll see what happens."
Department of Defense officials say the $1.5 billion in savings won't affect budget cuts in 2014.
