HUD Cancels Last Two Furlough Days

Employees at the Department of Housing and Urban Development won’t have to take the last two scheduled furlough days. In March, HUD announced it would furlough all 9,000 of its employees for seven days between May and August to offset automatic budget cuts due to sequestration. Furlough dates were scheduled for May 10 and 24; June 14; July 5 and 22; and Aug. 16 and 30.

"When HUD announced intent to impose up to seven furlough days to help close the budget gap caused by government-wide automatic spending cuts that took effect on March 1, 2013, senior leadership pledged to do everything possible to minimize the personal impact on HUD's employees," HUD Deputy Secretary Maurice Jones said in a statement. "Today, I am pleased to announce that HUD is reducing the number of furlough days from seven to five, providing some relief to the approximately 9,000 employees who have endured five days of unpaid leave since May 24." He added that HUD managers were making progress toward achieving $69.6 million in sequestration cuts without the need for further furlough days.

The cancellation of the furloughs comes after a memorandum of understanding was reached between the agency and the American Federation of Government Employees.