White House has started sending furlough notices
Four out of 11 components of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) have already sent furlough notices.
This includes the White House, the Vice President's Office, the Office of Management and Budget and Council on Environmental Quality.
Each part of the West Wing and East Wing operations have also engaged in hiring slow-downs and scaled back equipment and supply purchases.
The White House will require one furlough day from each employee with no exceptions. The first furlough day will be in the first pay period in May.
Senior White House aides, who have a staff commission status, will have their pay cut commensurate with one furlough day. They will work, they just won't be paid on their furlough day.
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Non-commissioned White House staff will be required to take furloughs. That means a day off without pay.
Other executive branch components (meaning non-White House) may impose furloughs of between three and 10 days, spread out over three to seven months.
Last week, President Obama and some members of his cabinet offered to take a pay cut in solidarity with furloughed workers; Vice President Biden's office said last week he was considering doing the same if workers in his office were furloughed.
Hundreds of thousands of government workers could be affected by furloughs; already, some departments have announced furlough plans, including the Defense Department, which is requiring 14 furlough days for as many as 700,000 of its employees through September.
"As we have said, as the impact of the sequester progresses, furlough notices and pay cuts are likely," a White House official tells CBS News.
"All of this means that every EOP employee is dealing with the consequences both in their own lives and in their ability to do their job. But all of us are more concerned about the impact the sequester is having on kids enrolled in head start, seniors who get meals on wheels, our military who bravely serve our country, and middle class families dependent on a growing economy," the official continued.
"If only the individuals who are responsible for these cuts going into effect shared this concern rather than hailing it as a 'partisan political victory.'"
