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Fairborn
Daily Herald
Turner
defends Wright-Patt workers amid Syria conflict
By
Amanda Crowe
WASHINGTON,
D.C. — Congressman Mike Turner went to bat once again in defense of
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base employees affected by the
consequences of furloughs.
Turner,
Chairman of the Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee of the House Armed
Services Committee, challenged Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel on
the effects of sequestration at Wright-Patterson and the cost for the
military to enter a conflict in Syria. The exchange took place
Tuesday during a House Armed Services Full Committee Hearing on the
proposed authorization to use military force in Syria.
Having
met with some of the nearly 12,000 local personnel affected, Turner
relayed their financial concerns such as making house payments, car
payments and providing support for their children.
“With
the President’s sequestration, basically they were told the
Department of Defense did not have enough money to pay them,”
Turner addressed Hagel. “And yet, now the Department of Defense is
telling the American public that it has enough money to take us into
this conflict in Syria. How do you explain that to those people who
lost wages and are facing the prospect of losing wages again in 2014
due to the President’s sequestration?”
Secretary
Hagel reiterated that five of the previously announced 11 furlough
days were “taken back.” When sequestration took effect on March
1, DoD faced shortfalls of more than $30 billion in its budget for
day-to-day operating costs. At that time, civilian employees faced
the possibility of up to 22 unpaid furlough days. Hagel announced
Aug. 6 that the number of required furlough days has been reduced
from the previously announced 11 to six.
“We
took five of those furlough days back through a lot of very astute
management and robbing from our future readiness, by the way, to get
that,” Hagel said in response to Turner on Tuesday.
With
the two weeks left in the current fiscal year, Hagel said that if
there were a strike on Syria, any costs beyond Oct. 1 will fall in
FY2014, which Turner pointed out is also subject to sequestration…
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the rest of the article at the Fairborn Daily Herald
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