This was just announced to CBP employees on the intranet:
Updated Information on FY 2013 Budget
(04/01/2013)
To the men and women of CBP:
As you are aware, President Obama last week signed into law an appropriations bill that funded CBP for this fiscal year. I have been working closely with our budget office in analyzing the bill. Although the budget reductions imposed by sequestration are significant, the bill’s provisions allow CBP to mitigate to some degree the impacts of the reduced budget on operations and on CBP’s workforce.
In light of the new funding bill, we are re-evaluating previously planned furloughs and de-authorization of Administratively Uncontrollable Overtime (AUO), and will postpone implementation of both changes pending that re-examination. We are doing everything we can to minimize these impacts on CBP employees and will keep you updated as we continue to assess the exact impact the legislation will have on our operations and on our workforce.
Please continue to proceed in a manner which ensures that we are able to carry out our national security mandate. Thank you for your understanding as we work through these issues and challenging times.
Thomas S. Winkowski
Deputy Commissioner of CBP,
Performing the duties of the Commissioner of CBP
Update @ 4:30 pm: A couple of hours ago, Winkowski’s statement was pulled from CBPnet. Whether this was simply an IT related problem or if it was done intentionally, we may never know. However, an email was sent to everyone about an hour ago that states the same thing as the letter that was taken down.