National Guard and Reserve military technicians will soon face furloughs made necessary by sequestration. They are the only members of the federal workforce wearing military uniforms subject to a reduction in their duty days.
Through the Pentagon, the president long ago exempted uniformed personnel from sequestration to limit the impact of ongoing budget debates on military readiness. However, he failed to exempt 57,795 military technicians in the National Guard, more than half the Guard's full-time force, and thousands in the Reserve.
Military technicians perform daily the vital training, maintenance and administrative functions that maintain the high level of readiness required for responding to critical and unpredictable domestic emergencies.