Today is the largest non-weather-related partial government shutdown in recent history thanks the Sequester. Around 115,000 people, which is approximately 5 percent of the federal workforce, will stay home thanks to Sequester mandated furloughs. That includes nearly all of the workers at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), and Office of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as some staffers for the Departments of Labor and Interior, who will get an unpaid day off for their Memorial Day weekend.
Across the country, mandated furloughs will increasingly empty agencies throughout the summer. The Pentagon will begin furloughs of 650,000 civilian workers on July 8; defense workers will get a five-day, unpaid holiday around Independence Day. HUD has six more furlough days scheduled for this summer. The IRS has scheduled four furlough days throughout August.