WASHINGTON — A House committee has approved legislation that would require a 10 percent reduction in the federal civilian workforce by Sept. 30, 2014.
Under the bill approved Thursday, an agency could replace only 1 of every 3 employees who retires.
The Oversight and Government Reform Committee, citing figures from the Congressional Budget Office, said the bill is projected to save taxpayers $139 billion over 10 years.
The committee on Thursday voted 23-14 to approve the legislation for consideration by the full House. Only one Democrat voted for it.
There currently are 1.8 million civilian federal workers, more than 686,500 of them in the Defense Department. An amendment added in committee would require the same monetary savings in payments to contractors.
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