April must have seen a lot of worried dinner conversations in McLean, Virginia. As the sequester takes effect, Pentagon defense contracts decreased 52 percent in April to $19 billion from March’s $39.4 billion. The sequester’s reductions, which began March 1, will require $37 billion in cuts to the Pentagon this year. The Defense Department has yet to announce whether or not it will carry out the furloughs requiring unpaid leave for up to 750,000 civilian defense employees.
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