NORFOLK, Va. (WTVR) -- Imagine losing a fifth of your paycheck for at least five months.
That could happen to 800,000 civilian workers if sequestration happens, according to the Department of Defense.
Those workers will be furloughed for one day a week, losing 20-percent of their pay for up to 22 weeks starting in late April as part of automatic spending cuts.
Fifteen-hundred shipyard workers in Norfolk have just learned they will be a casualty of those cuts.
BAE Systems is telling its employees they may have to lay them off.
Virginia Senator Tim Kaine says a lot of people in Virginia, not just those in the military, are worried about the possibility of mandatory government cutbacks.
"We are hearing a pretty dire message across the state about people's sense of anxiety, and it's my hope that we can take some really good specific stories when I go next week."
When Kaine returns to Congress, the senate will be casting votes on strategies to avoid these deep cuts.
