Furlough Press Kit
Furlough news release
Furlough Speaking Points
Contact your Senator and Congressional Representative
Call or email your State Senator.
Call or email your Congressional Representatives.
While NOAA proposes furloughs,
Congress approves DOJ reprogramming request to keep employees on the job.
Speaking points on NWS furloughs included.
(April 25, 2013) Congress approved a reprogramming request presented by the Justice Department of $239,500,000 (almost 1% of their budget) Wednesday that will prevent furloughs of emergency employees at the FBI, ATF, U.S. Marshalls and Bureau of Prisons. This occurs with the backdrop of NOAA sending an all hands email to its employees informing them of their plans to furlough every employee for four days because of the agency’s unwillingness to reprogram under $18 million dollars (about .36% of their total budget).
“I am delighted to see how much the Department of Justice values their emergency employees” stated Dan Sobien, NWSEO President. “Congress has offered to approve reprogramming for the National Weather Service, but we have yet to see NOAA’s commitment to their life-saving mission or to the dedicated emergency essential employees who work carry out that mission.”
An April 12 letter from Congressman Frank Wolf, of the House Appropriations Committee, urges Dr. Rebecca Blank, Deputy Secretary of Commerce, to “ensure that the NWS has the funding necessary to adequately forecast the weather.”
If the agency is to continue its life-saving mission and support to emergency personnel, it must have fully staffed offices during summer’s severe weather months, as well as during the unforeseen events such as Thursday’s fuel barge explosions in Mobile, Alabama or last week’s fertilizer plant explosion in Texas. Staffing shortages will also compound delays in national air space. “There is public outcry about flight delays caused by FAA furloughs driving down commerce and delaying travelers,” said Sobien. “Imagine what will happen when the NWS furloughs compounds this.”
National and local media are expressing interest in NOAA’s proposed NWS furloughs. NWSEO encourages you to work with your local media on the projected impacts to your office. Member outreach to their local television meteorologists and print reporters have been very effective in getting our message across to the American public and to members of Congress. Below are some speaking points on the proposed furloughs. It is important to develop local speaking points, as well, that highlight the types of weather and severe weather in your region and how the furloughs would affect your office’s ability to carry out the mission of saving lives and property.
Speaking Points - National Weather Service Furloughs
The National Weather Service Employees Organization represents all nonsupervisory employees of the National Weather Service at Forecast Offices, River Forecast Centers, and specialized forecasting centers across the country.
These employees, are mostly designated as “emergency/essential,” and will be among the 12,000 employees of NOAA who will be furloughed this summer for four days, during the height of the severe storm and hurricane seasons.
Few are aware that NOAA has already made dramatic reductions in staffing at the NWS even before sequestration. Almost 10% of critical NWS positions are currently vacant.
Forecast offices around the country have serious staffing shortages. These already understaffed offices cannot withstand employee furloughs. On any given day, the forecast offices are only staffed for benign weather; even when fully staffed there are customarily only two forecasters on duty most hours of the day and night who have responsibility to issue scheduled forecasts and to protect an average of 3 million people by keeping an eye for severe weather.
Forecast offices around the country have serious staffing shortages. These already understaffed offices cannot withstand employee furloughs. On any given day, the forecast offices are only staffed for benign weather; even when fully staffed there are customarily only two forecasters on duty most hours of the day and night who have responsibility to issue scheduled forecasts and to protect an average of 3 million people by keeping an eye for severe weather.
When there is a storm, they call the staff in. Employees who are in a furlough status cannot, by law, be called into work on a day designated for furlough. As our union's President was quoted in the Washington Post recently, "you can furlough Federal employees, but you can't furlough the weather.”
What is equally important is that the planned furloughs of NOAA employees, including the thousands of NWS employees who are designated “emergency essential,” is
not financially necessary. A four-day furlough of the 12,242 NOAA employees will save only $17.8 million out of a $5 billion dollar budget. Put this in perspective for the reporters with one of the following analogies:
The savings of these furloughs is a mere 36 cents per $100 to NOAA’s budget. If you were going to buy brakes for your car, would you buy the brakes guaranteed to work 100 percent of the time for $100 or would you opt for the breaks that might fail 4 days out of the year and cost $99.64?
NOAA is opting to take the risk at the expense of the American public to save a mere 36 cents for every hundred dollars of the budget.
OR
The savings of these furloughs is a mere 36 cents per $100 to NOAA’s budget. If you were going to buy a security system for your home, would you buy the one with 100 percent coverage for $100 or would you opt for the model that leaves windows of risk four days a year and cost $99.64?
NOAA is opting to take the risk at the expense of the American public to save a mere 36 cents for every hundred dollars of the budget.
The savings at the NWS will only be $6.6 million of a $1 billion budget. Thus, the harm to employees (who have not had a raise in three years) and adverse impact on the agency's mission far outweigh the minimal savings. And there are plenty of other funds that can be used to cover these furloughs through reprogramming (which has been encouraged by both Chairman Wolf and Ranking Member Fattah of the House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee). NOAA plans to distribute $710.5 million in outside grants this year – of that, only $95.85million in grants have been awarded to date. NOAA is currently soliciting applications for 21 grants totaling $59 million on www.grants.gov.
Finally, as far as has been publicly announced, NOAA is the only entity in the entire Department of Commerce that plans to furlough its employees.
-NWSEO-
No one cares more for National Weather Service employees than
National Weather Service employees.
No one works harder for National Weather Service employees than
National Weather Service employees.
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