FORT WAYNE, Ind. (AP) - Nearly 1,000 Indiana National Guard members would face temporary furloughs if automatic federal spending cuts take effect next month.

Unless Congress heads off the cuts set for March 1, The Journal Gazette reports some 1,000 Indiana Guard members would lose one day’s work, and pay, each week for 22 weeks. That would cost them at least $7 million in wages.

Indiana Air National Guard spokesman Master Sgt. Darin Hubble says about 170 full-time personnel at the Air National Guard’s base in Fort Wayne would be furloughed. That’s more than half of the 122nd Fighter Wing’s full-time personnel.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Wednesday that if the spending cuts kick in he might have to shorten the workweek for the “vast majority” of the Defense Department’s 800,000 civilian workers.

Posted 2/21/2013