Five hundred Navy civilian employees on the East Coast will be cut and port operations will be restricted to a daylight Monday to Friday schedule to meet Navy Region Mid-Atlantic’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget goal.
Three hundred Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command Mid-Atlantic and 200 Navy Region Mid-Atlantic (CRMA) civilians will be cut as part of an effort to reduce $66 million in the budget for U.S. Navy shore facilities from Maine to Virginia and as far west as Illinois, Navy officials told USNI News on Tuesday.
Of the CRMA civilians, most are set to come from family services and Morale Welfare and Recreation roles, a Navy official told USNI News. Some positions will be reduced via early retirement and voluntary buyouts.
“CNRMA staff completed a comprehensive review of our products and services to develop a plan to manage and execute shore services with our $66M (16 percent reduction) budgetary shortfall to our facilities programs with the goal of minimizing negative impacts to the Fleet, Fighters, and Families we support,” CRMA head Rear Adm. Charles Rock outlined in a memo reviewed by USNI News.
“Toward that end and given the lack of flexibility to cut utilities costs, we prioritized resources to mitigate potential impacts to mission readiness while focusing on ensuring continuity of operations, to include our primary responsibility for life safety and security.”
The reductions also include limiting ship departures to reduce overtime for necessary dockworkers and harbor pilots needed to get ships underway and back to the pier.
“In order to reduce overtime cost, these hours will be more strictly enforced to core weekday working hours. Ships and submarines shall only depart and arrive at Navy-controlled ports Mon-Fri between 0630-1500,” Rock wrote.
Commands needing ships to leave outside the port hours need to reimburse CMRA and NAVFAC for the extra cost. While not a new policy, it has not been enforced, officials told USNI News.
Other reductions include reducing the CMRA fleet of vehicles by 1,300, reduction in morale, welfare and recreation facilities, cutting back on janitorial services and groundskeeping spending and canceling cable television for ships and submarines that are pier side.
“Your respective installation’s leadership will communicate installation-specific changes as the year progresses and remain open to your feedback on how these changes may impact your mission and personnel,” Rock said in the message.
“With limited budgets, a necessary focus on warfighting and Great Power Competition is required and past business and funding practices are no longer affordable and sustainable; drastic action is required.”
The changes will begin to go into effect at the start of Fiscal Year 2022 on Oct. 1.
