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Meat-ax federal cuts
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As a federal employee, I want to alert your readers about the impending negative impact on the services they receive from federal employees, now that sequestration is in effect. Every day, federal workers in our community help our country's seniors, veterans and low-income children. They help protect our air and water and make sure food and medicines are safe. They guard our borders, process tax returns and secure nuclear materials. All of these services are threatened under sequestration.
As president of Chapter 34 of the National Treasury Employees Union, I see firsthand the work federal employees perform. I am very concerned about the ability to meet agency missions under sequestration.
The meat-ax approach of across-the-board budget cuts -- 9 percent of the remaining budget through Sept. 30 -- will severely undercut the ability of agency after agency to serve the public.
What's more, federal employees, who already have contributed $103 billion to deficit reduction and economic recovery, are among the first to be hit. My members, who along with other federal workers are under a pay freeze that began in January 2011, now face unpaid furloughs that will put even greater financial pressures on them.
Sequestration serves no one well. For the good of our country, it should be canceled and replaced with balanced deficit reduction measures.
CHARLEEN CLINE-STEPHANSKY
President
NTEU Chapter 34
Downtown
First Published March 15, 2013 12:00 am
