While the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester are chopping money at the same percentage rate from different federal agencies, a review of options to deal with the cuts shows the impact of those spending reductions varies greatly between federal departments.
For example, civilian defense workers - as many as 750,000 to 800,000 - may start receiving furlough notices from the Defense Department later this week, but other agencies where furloughs were originally threatened may not see any forced days off without pay during this fiscal year.
Many of the details are still being determined, not only by the budget number crunchers in the agencies, but also by negotiations with unions that represent federal workers at various agencies.
For example, while most departments would sprinkle any furlough days between April and September, some agencies seem to be planning a full shutdown on certain days.
Here are some of the many examples I cobbled together on Monday:
+ No furloughs are planned at the National Weather Service, as a number of forecasting jobs will instead go unfilled.
+ The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has worked out a deal with its main union to have seven specific furlough days - for the entire department. The furlough days would be May 24, June 14, July 5, July 22, August 2, August 16 and August 30. (All but one of those dates are Fridays if you are scoring at home.)
+ While the Homeland Security Department threatened furloughs for all employees, the union that represents TSA workers says they will avoid furloughs by natural attrition and limits on overtime.
+ Another major agency within Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is also not planning furloughs. "I'm going to do everything in my power not to furlough," the ICE director told lawmakers last week.
+ A hiring freeze and other efforts to rein in expenses will also prevent furloughs at places like the State Department, the Office of Personnel Management, the Government Accountability Office and more.
+ House and Senate administrative offices are not actively planning for furloughs, but some open positions are not being filled; that is evidently happening with one of the staff positions in our Senate press gallery for Radio and TV reporters.
My spreadsheet on furloughs is filling up with all kinds of different information - many of the furloughs won't start until late April, with some agencies forcing workers to take as few as 5 days without pay, all the way up to as many as 22 days for civilian defense workers.
But what is notable is that a lot of blanks still exist, making some wonder if the advertised impacts of the sequester will be as bad as forecast by the Obama Administration, or if the actual budget numbers will pan out as predicted.
We should get more details about the sequester on Tueday in a series of hearings in the House, where everyone from the FBI Director to the Immigration chief and top officials of the House and Senate are set to testify.
It doesn't matter if the hearing isn't expressly about the sequester - it's the elephant in the room for both parties.
Meanwhile, over on the Senate floor, it's the main issue for many as Senators struggle to finish a bill that funds the government for the rest of the fiscal year.
While Senators want to force votes on amendments that would allow for money to be shifted around to allow White House tours to resume, let food safety inspectors stay on the job and to keep open certain air traffic towers, those plans may not get a vote before final action on the bill as early as Tuesday.
