A hazy future rolled in for Naval Support Activity Crane, its civilian employees and its defense contractors Friday when the sequestration clock wound down to start an era of across-the-board federal budget cuts.
Those cuts are scheduled to pull $1.2 trillion from federal spending through 2021. They include $43 billion in curtailed defense spending over the next seven months.
Crane is slated to take a $36 million hit, according to U.S. Sen. Joe Donnelly, D-Ind. Officials had yet to clarify how they plan to carry out 22 weeks of one-day-a-week furloughs that are planned to start in April for the more than 4,000 civilian employees who work at the base.
For Crane contractors — the private firms that provide goods and services for the installation — the climate of uncertainty is hardly new.
“We always are in an environment where there are an awful lot of unknowns,” said Doug McDaniel, president of the Bloomington — based defense contractor Scientia LLC. “We’re doing great today, but we’re always a step or a step-and-a-half away from the precipice.”
Scientia is a software developer focused on sensor integration for persistent surveillance systems. It employs 11 people. All of them are based in Bloomington, although some work in Bedford.
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