500 positions at March Air Base jeopardized by sequestration

To protect jobs at March Air Reserve Base, the Boardof Supervisors today directed Riverside County’s federal and state lobbyists tourge support for a congressional resolution that calls for military reservepersonnel in technical positions to be exempt from “sequestration” furloughsthat go into effect next month.

“This is all about saving jobs at March and nationwide,” saidSupervisor Marion Ashley. “Five hundred or more positions locally could beaffected by this. It’s an issue of national defense and economic stability.”

Sequestration kicked in on March 1 because Democratic and Republicanlawmakers could not reach a compromise on spending as laid out in the federalBudget Control Act of 2011. About $85 billion in cuts — 2 percent of theroughly $3.4 trillion in outlays for the current fiscal year — are beingimplemented.

Employees in a number of agencies — the departments of HomelandSecurity, Transportation and Interior — are facing temporary furloughs to meetbudget restrictions. The furloughs begin on April 25.

Uniformed military personnel are exempt from the furloughs under a 1985law signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. However, sequestration will impactcivilian Department of Defense workers, as well as reservists and members ofthe National Guard.

“We’re concerned about the potential for job losses,” said RiversideCounty Economic Development Agency spokesman Tom Freeman, a retired guardsman.”It’s technicians in the guard and reserve who maintain the operationaleffectiveness of our planes and other equipment at March Air Reserve Base . . .We don’t want to see furloughs when the country is in war-fighting mode.”

Rep. Steve Palazzo, R-Miss., has introduced a resolution — H.R. 1014 –proposing an amendment to federal law that would add National Guardsmen andreservists in technical positions to the furlough exemption list.

The House Budget Committee is considering the proposal.

“These (furloughs) are ridiculous when we still have (commitments) inso many places overseas,” Ashley said.

The board voted to direct the county’s state lobbyists to seek a jointresolution in the California Assembly and Senate expressing support for H.R.1014, and for county lobbyists in Washington, D.C., to make sure Inland Empirecongressional representatives are aware of the measure and the board’s positionon it.