Senator: Instead of furloughs, trim deadwood
http://federaldaily.com/articles/2013/03/28/senator-says-agencies
-should-shed-certain-employees-before-furloughs.aspx

excerpt:
"Under current arrangements, these employees are paid large salaries during waiting periods, but are not given meaningful work," he wrote, citing a Federal Times estimate that put the cost of wasted contractor man-hours at "between $900 million and $1.8 billion a month."