Union response: Cuts will cost federal jobs

More job losses in the midst of an unemployment crisis are imminent, the leader of the largest federal employee union said today in response to agency budget cuts proposed by the Office of Management and Budget.

American Federation of Government Employees President John Gage said the debt-ceiling deal and the new congressional super committee charged with identifying spending cuts will negatively affect the federal workforce.

In a statement, Gage said the federal workforce will lack vital resources as a result of OMB’s instructions to agencies to slash 5 percent from their fiscal 2011 discretionary appropriations for their 2013 budgets.

Gage said that could mean fewer border patrol officers, less enforcement of clean water and air rules, fewer medical research gains, and less oversight by the Food and Drug Administration.

“All America suffers when government lacks the resources to carry out the promise of effective and efficient public service,” Gage said.

AFGE represents more than 600,000 federal and D.C. government workers nationwide and overseas.