GovernmentExecutive.com

Here's an example of how budget pressures are playing out on the front lines of federal agencies. Since fiscal 2004, the budget for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Midwest Regional Refuge System has been stuck at $28.5 million. But personnel expenses have been going up at about 5 percent per year, and the costs of fuel, equipment and other supplies also have increased. To deal with the situation, FWS's Midwest regional office reports, managers already have left 35 positions vacant and will cut another 36 jobs over the next three years. That's a total reduction of 20 percent of the region's workforce. "The cuts the Fish and Wildlife Service is being forced to make are damaging our nation's protected refuge system," said Rodger Schlickeisen, president of the conservation group Defenders of Wildlife.