WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King released the following statement today after being notified by the Department of Defense (DOD) that the number of furlough days DOD civilian employees will have to endure this fiscal year has been reduced from eleven to six:

“While we certainly welcome Secretary Hagel’s announcement today, as well as the sense of relief that it may bring to DOD civilian employees across Maine, we’re still keenly aware of the significant financial hardship that these furloughs days have imposed on them, their families, and our economy,” Senators Collins and King said in a joint statement. “Rather than placing the burden of debt reduction on the backs of our hardworking civilian defense employees and hoping that the Defense Department can adequately rearrange its resources to reduce the impact on them, Congress should instead pass a sensible budget that fully replaces sequestration – as we have both called for on multiple occasions – while also addressing the most pressing fiscal needs of our nation.”

Senator Collins is a senior member of the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and Senator King is a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

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