Rep. Wasserman Schultz Urges Congress to Replace Cuts and End National Guard Furloughs

Fort Lauderdale, FL, July 16, 2013
Florida's National Guard started July 8, and will keep 1,000 full-time service members home for the next 11 Mondays through September.

Furloughs for Florida’s National Guard started July 8, and will keep 1,000 full-time service members home for the next 11 Mondays through September.

These cuts come right as Florida is in the middle of Hurricane season, and the furloughs mean less time spent in training and for equipment maintenance and other preparedness activities for the military unit that serves a critical role during state emergencies.

On Tuesday, July 16, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23) hosted a news conference with Col. Valeria Gonzalez-Kerr and Lt. Col. Marty Nichols, both with the FL National Guard, to talk about what this means for Floridians.

Nationally, more than 618,000 Department of Defense employees will be furloughed at a cost of more than $2 billion to the U.S. economy. The across-the-board cuts known as sequestration, which went into effect on March 1 after Congress failed to act, require defense spending to be reduced by approximately 7.9% and non-defense spending by approximately 5.3%.