Pentagon Says 200,000 Workers Could Receive Pink Slips for Christmas

By Stephen BarrWednesday, December 5, 2007; Page D04
Federal employees who work for the Army may get layoff notices before Christmas if Congress and the White House do not reach an accord on funding for the Iraq war, the Pentagon said yesterday.
The warning, posted near the top of the Defense Department's Web site, was the latest in a series from Pentagon officials in recent weeks.
About 100,000 federal employees and an additional 100,000 contract workers are at risk of being sent home without pay in February and March if the Army and Marine Corps run short of money and have to reduce operations at their bases, according to the Pentagon.
Under federal rules, the department must give 60 days' advance notice of layoffs to employees -- which, in this case, would make for a less-than-glad tiding for the holidays.
Longtime federal employees usually scoff at such warnings, viewing them as part of the political posturing that pops up from time to time. Still, such warnings cannot be entirely dismissed. The 1995-96 budget impasse led to a shutdown of the government and, at one point, sent 800,000 federal employees home for three weeks during the December-January holiday season.
Yesterday, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said "facts are the facts" and that military bases will have to cease operations, terminate contracts and send employees home without pay if a war-funding deal is not reached