Federal workers take ‘furlough Friday’

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

No one answered the tax-help hot line at the IRS on Friday. And you could forget about getting advice on avoiding foreclosures at the 80 Housing and Urban Development field offices nationwide.

It was “furlough Friday.” Roughly 5 percent of the federal workforce — 115,000 people at six major agencies — were told not to show up as the government dealt with the continuing effects of the sequester spending cuts.

The good news for many federal workers: a four-day Memorial Day weekend. The bad news: no pay for the day.

The across-the-board budget reductions, the result of Washington’s failure to work out a long-term, deficit-cutting plan in November 2011, essentially shut down some government agencies, though it had a negligible impact on others.

The IRS, embroiled in a scandal over agents targeting tea-party groups, got a day of quiet. Its offices were closed with more than 90,000 employees furloughed Friday, one of five days the agency plans to shut down this year to save money.

A self-employed, small- business owner calling the agency’s hot line to check on the deadline for second-quarter estimated taxes got a recording saying, “Due to the current budget situation, all IRS offices are closed on Friday, May 24.” The tax deadlines are unaffected.

HUD furloughed nearly its entire staff of more than 8,400 employees, closed the agency’s headquarters in Washington and shut down about 80 field offices.

That meant no walk-in housing counseling services at HUD offices to help people wanting to buy homes, refinance or avoid foreclosure. The furloughs also created delays for developers and municipalities needing technical assistance or approval of housing projects, officials said.

At the Labor Department, spokeswoman Elizabeth Alexander said 437 employees out of about 16,500 were furloughed.