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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPentagon to recall most furloughed workers, Hagel says
The Pentagon will recall most of its furloughed civilian workers in the coming days, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Saturday, in a move that could substantially ease the impact of the government shutdown on the federal workforce.
The Pentagon did not immediately specify how many employees would be summoned back to work, except to say that most of its 400,000 furloughed civilians would be allowed to return. That means that at least 200,000 Defense workers will go back on the job a figure that by itself represents one quarter of the 800,000 federal employees on furlough.
Hagels decision is based on liberal interpretation of the Pay Our Military Act, a bill passed by Congress last week and signed by President Obama that ensures that uniformed members of the military will not have their paychecks delayed by the shutdown. The bill includes general language exempting Defense Department civilians from furlough if they provide direct support to the military.
After consulting with Pentagon lawyers and Obama administration officials in recent days, Hagel decided that he could justify recalling most of the Pentagons furloughed workforce based on that provision in the law...
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pentagon-to-recall-most-furloughed-workers-hagel-says/2013/10/05/eb7ed346-2deb-11e3-8ade-a1f23cda135e_story.html
Good news. Also, is this a shot across the bow signaling the administration's willingness to use interpretation of law to side-step Republican obstruction (I.e. using the 14th amendment to raise the debt ceiling)?
Barack_America
(28,876 posts)Kind of thought this was important stuff, on a number of levels...you know over 25% of the shutdown over and a potential way out of the looming debt ceiling crisis.
whttevrr
(2,345 posts)So far he seems like a good choice as Sec Def.
whttevrr
(2,345 posts)I am not being facetious. I just don't know enough about him to make anything more than a fuzzy logic assumption. I heard/read a lot of differing opinions about his nomination. I went with the gut in thinking that the fact that he rose up through the ranks from an enlisted military person that I hoped he remembered where he came from.
What do people think about Hagel?