On October 7, AFGE members joined lawmakers and a dozen other organizations in a rally to protest the destructive across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration -- the same policy that caused widespread furloughs for government employees in 2013.
They joined Minority House Whip Steny Hoyer (MD), Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (RI), Jack Reed (RI), Chuck Schumer (NY), and Representatives Chris Van Hollen (MD), Robin Kelly (IL), Nita Lowey (NY), and Michelle Lujan Grisham (NM) to call for a bi-partisan plan to fully fund and support federal programs and services that Americans rely on.
AFGE members held signs that said "Sink the Sequester" to send a strong message to those who seek to weaken public services through arbitrary cuts that enough is enough.
In the first year of sequestration, three-quarters of a million federal employees lost $1 billion in income due to furloughs. If Congress does not end sequestration, the long-term impact of more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts over the next decade will be catastrophic to the American economy.