Budget agreement should lessen need for furloughs, RIFs, experts say

Federal Times: The newly unveiled budget agreement should ease — but not eliminate — pressure on agencies to resort to unpaid furloughs and reductions-in-force over the next two years, former federal officials and other observers said Wednesday.

The agreement, announced late Tuesday by a House-Senate budget committee, would partially repeal sequester-related spending cuts set to take effect in fiscal 2014 and 2015. By giving agencies longer-term certainty over their budgets, the deal would also allow managers to plan for reductions in travel and other areas besides personnel, said Henry Romero, a one-time Office of Personnel Management executive now at Federal Management Partners, a consulting firm.

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