Agencies set up plans to manage cuts if Congress, Obama fail to reach deficit deal With 25 days before $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years are set to start, the White House sent word this week to civilian and defense agencies to prepare for the worst to happen. But the White House may be leading from behind. For months, some managers have been quietly preparing worst-case plans, having grown painfully familiar with budget uncertainty after a near-government shutdown last year and numerous stopgap budgets. From the federal courts to the National Park Service, agencies have been sweating the logistics on how to shrink their day-to-day operations. The court system, which faces a $555 million loss next year under an 8.2 percent cut mandated for civilian agencies, is preparing to close some district courts one day a week, impose employee furloughs of up to four weeks and reduce the hours of security officers who guard courthouses. "We've all developed this master plan that nobody hopes we'll have to enact," said David Sellers, spokesman for the administrative office of the federal courts. A committee of court officials from across the country has met for a year to decide where the system would absorb the cuts, balancing furloughs with delayed trials. "They've taken it very seriously and methodically," Sellers said. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission assured employees in November that no furloughs or layoffs are planned. Instead, to save money, outside contracts would be stretched out or stopped. The National Park Service has slowed some hiring for the tourist season, a strategy that advocates and former park officials said would have to continue in January. The Defense Department is likely to impose an immediate hiring freeze on its civilian workforce, said a spokeswoman, Army Lt. Col. Elizabeth Robbins. Furloughs, rather than layoffs, would begin within a few weeks, she said. And unions that represent federal workers are dusting off their manuals on when to call for bargaining with management over unpaid furloughs, which would probably be forced on thousands of employees. "Nobody knows what's going to happen with the fiscal cliff," said Danette Woo, special park uses coordinator at the Mojave National Preserve in San Bernardino County, Calif. What happens is totally out of our control, but it affects our ability to get our job done. Park managers have prepared a "budget constraint" plan that calls for layoffs of seasonal employees and program cuts, Woo said. Like other agencies, the Park Service in recent months has slowed hiring, travel and training. At the NRC, "the agency has certainly worked under the assumption that sequestration is a very real possibility," spokesman Scott Burnell said. We've put the work into understanding how we would go about continuing to operate.