Why are government employees getting furloughed?

Answer 1

In the United States, many federal employees are facing the possibility of a furlough (mandatory unpaid leave) in the spring and summer of 2013.

The legal reason for this is a bill passed by Congress and signed by the President that mandated "sequestration", an across-the-board reduction in funding for all federal agencies including defense and non-defense agencies. The bill was passed and signed in August 2011 in response to disagreement over raising the debt limit of the country. Sequestration was originally intended as a "too horrible to contemplate" alternate to a group of 12 Congresspeople called the Supercommittee. The Supercommittee was composed of three Republicans and three Democrats from each half of Congress and they were charged with recommending a budget that would cut the deficit and rein in government spending. The Supercommittee failed to do so, triggering the implementation of the sequester in January 2013. Congress kicked that can down the road two months, to March 1, 2013, when they also addressed the expiration of the Bush (II)-era tax cuts. On March 1, 2013 all federal agencies were required to implement the budget cuts required by the sequester.

Under normal circumstances, federal agencies try to avoid furloughing employees if at all possible. However, the budget reductions from the sequester are so steep (approximately 5% for the fiscal year) and come so late in the fiscal year (there were only 7 months left at the start) that furloughing employees is the only way to meet the mandated budget reductions. This is further compounded by the fact that many federal employees are represented by Unions and the Agencies must bargain with the Unions over how the furlough will be implemented, mostly to ensure fairness and equity across all affected employees. Because of this, the furloughs won't actually start until mid-April, and some of the most directly-impacting furloughs won't start until mid-July.