Budget Office Joins All Other Major Agencies in Reducing Furloughs

The Office of Management and Budget has joined the ranks of other major federal agencies in reducing furloughs, knocking two days off original projections, a spokeswoman told Government Executive.

Every major agency that at some point laid out initial plans to require unpaid leave for employees due to sequestration in fiscal 2013 has now -- to varying degrees -- lowered the number of furlough days originally announced, or canceled them entirely.

OMB, which played the leading role in implementing sequestration across the federal government, originally scheduled 10 days of furloughs for 480 employees. To date, OMB employees have taken seven furlough days and have one more planned through September. The budgeting office has canceled its final two days of mandatory unpaid leave.

“OMB was able to eliminate two of the 10 originally planned furlough days through greater than expected attrition, a hiring freeze and other cost reduction measures,” said Ari Isaacman Astle, an OMB spokeswoman. 

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