U.S. intelligence agencies may have to furlough some workers under required sequestration budget cuts but no decisions have been made on furloughs yet, the national intelligence director said Friday.James Clapper said the intelligence community slowed down hiring when it became clear agencies would have to reduce their budgets, Defense News reported Monday.
Stephen Losey writes intelligence agencies can hire new employees to both fill needed positions and prevent the IC workforce from developing skill gaps.
Clapper said he will do everything he can to avoid furloughs during this round of cuts, echoing similar comments he made in February.
The IC avoided layoffs in the 1990s even as the intelligence budget was slashed 23 percent, Clapper said, according to Defense News.
“We closed CIA stations overseas, we cut human intelligence, we let our overhead reconnaissance architecture atrophy … and most painfully, we allowed the workforce to be distorted,” Clapper said, according to Losey’s report.
