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美国防部削减开支 承包商面临破产

The U.S. budget cuts known as Sequestration are projected to reduce government spending by $1.2 trillion over 10 years. The cuts are already being felt by U.S. defense¹ contractors².

美国最近启动了自动削减联邦开支计划，预计今后十年将减少开支1.2万亿美元。一些国防工程承包商已经受到政府削减开支的影响。

Davis Interiors is a small company in Norfolk, Virginia that makes specialized³ furniture and fixtures⁴ for U.S. navy ships. Administrator⁵ Whitney Metzger says the firm is already feeling the impact of sequestration.

戴维斯内部装修公司是维吉尼亚州诺福克的一个小公司，专为海军舰艇制作特别的家具。管理人员维特曼.曼格尔说，公司已经感受到削减开支的影响。

“We have had to cut back on employee hours. Almost everyone in this company has had to go down to a four-day work week. Some employees have had to go down to a three-day work week. We are anticipating lay-offs, probably soon,” said Whitney.

他说：“我们不得不减少雇员的工作时间，几乎所有雇员每周只能工作4天。有的甚至只能工作3天。可能不久就要裁员。”

Davis Interiors is one of the many private contractors in Eastern Virginia that service the nation’s largest naval⁶ base and other military installations. All together, they employ more than 40,000 people.

维吉尼亚东部有很多这样的国防工程承包商，他们的生意主要来自美国最大的海军基地和其他军事设施。这些公司的雇员加起来有4万多人。

The Defense Department’s plan to furlough almost 90,000 employees has not yet impacted the regional economy. But the cancellation⁷ of maintenance contracts for 11 ships based in Norfolk is already causing pain to contractors like Davis Interiors.

自动削减开支计划启动后，美国国防部计划让9万人因经费不足而暂时下岗。这个计划目前还没有对地区经济造成影响，但是国防部取消了对诺福克海军基地11艘军舰的维修合同，给戴维斯内部装修这样的承包商造成了痛苦。

David Williams has worked for Davis Interiors for 25 years. He says this is the second time in two years that government budget cuts have caused sudden work slowdowns.

大卫.威廉姆斯在这家公司做了25年。他说，这是两年来第二次发生政府削减预算造成工人没活干。

“I am very concerned about it because, I mean, I am still trying to recover from the last time this happened, and you get behind on your bills, and you struggle,” he said.

他说：“我很担心，我们上次被裁员还没有缓过来，现在又要减时。欠下的账单还没有还清。大家都在挣扎。”

Whitney Metzger says with foreign wars winding⁸ down, defense contractors in the area know that military spending will be reduced, but the sudden sequester⁹ cuts are too severe and could put them out of business.

维特曼.曼格尔说，随着海外战争的结束，这个地区的国防工程承包商都知道政府要削减国防开支，但是突然自动削减开支的幅度太大，会使承包商破产倒闭。

“We don’t know what is going to happen. We have contracts that we have been awarded that we will be able to see through, but after those, because of sequestration, no new contracts are being issued to anyone," said Metzger.

他说：“我们不知道会出现什么情况，我们跟政府订的一些合同还有效，项目会继续，但是之后由于自动削减开支，就没有新的合同了。”

Defense contractors in this region are the first to feel the impact of the sequester, and, if they remain in place, economists¹⁰ predict the entire state of Virginia will soon spiral into recession.

政府自动削减开支，维吉尼亚东部的国防工程承包商首先受到冲击。 如果自动削减开支继续下去，经济学者预计整个维吉尼亚州很快就会出现经济衰退。