As the continued congressional stalemate that has partially shut down the federal government enters its third day, even more government employees could face furloughs.
Already, several thousand federal employees and Georgia Army and Air National Guardsmen in Coastal Georgia were sent home on indefinite furlough Tuesday.
About 1,000 Defense Department civilians at Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield were furloughed Tuesday, along with several hundred Savannah-area National Guardsmen and employees at other federal agencies and facilities.
Throughout the entire Savannah District of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which includes employees working in Savannah and other areas in the southeastern U.S., 130 of 799 civilian employees have been furloughed as of Wednesday, said Corps spokesman Billy Birdwell.
That number, however, will certainly grow if the shutdown continues further.
“Some of our folks are off, and some of us are still here working,” Birdwell said Wednesday. “More of us will peel off as this shutdown continues.”
Corps of Engineers-managed construction projects on military posts within their district — including Fort Stewart, Fort Benning, and Fort Bragg, N.C. — will continue for now because they are funded with money allocated to them in previous fiscal years.
That includes the massive expansion at Fort Stewart’s Winn Army Community Hospital, Birdwell said.
Other projects, such as the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, are not being immediately impacted by the shutdown or associated furloughs, Birdwell said, but they could potentially face delays if the shutdown continues for an exceptional amount of time.
via More Savannah-area shutdown furloughs looming | savannahnow.com.
Comments ( 0 )