S.Amdt. 43

SA 43. Mr. BLUNT (for himself, Mr. Risch, Mr. Hoeven, Mr. Wicker, Mr.
Johanns, Mr. Enzi, Mrs. Fischer, Ms. Collins, and Mr. Inhofe) submitted
an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 26 proposed by Ms.
Mikulski (for herself and Mr. Shelby) to the bill H.R. 933, making
appropriations for the Department of Defense, the Department of
Veterans Affairs, and other departments and agencies for the fiscal
year ending September 30, 2013, and for other purposes; which was
ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the end of division G, insert the following:

SEC. ___. ESSENTIAL SERVICES ACT OF 2013.

(a) Short Title.--This section may be cited as the
``Essential Services Act of 2013''.
(b) Definitions.--In this section--
(1) the term ``agency'' means an Executive agency (as
defined in section 105 of title 5, United States Code); and
(2) the term ``essential employee'' means an employee that
performs work involving the safety of human life or the
protection of property, as determined by the head of the
agency.
(c) Furlough Flexibility.--
(1) In general.--In implementing the sequester required by
section 251A of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit
Control Act of 1985, as ordered on March 1, 2013, the head of
an agency may furlough such employees of the agency as are
required to achieve the funding reduction required by the
sequester for the agency, but shall exempt essential
employees.

[[Page S1797]]

(2) Transfer of budgetary resources.--The head of an agency
may transfer budgetary resources within their agency to carry
out paragraph (1), subject to the limitation that transfers
may only be made to maintain essential employees.
______