Maine’s two U.S. Senators expressed concern today about the impact “sequestration” could have on the work force at Bath Iron Works.

In their first joint appearance representing Maine in the U.S. Senate, Republican Susan Collins and Brunswick independent Angus King held a news conference this morning at the shipyard, and toured the facility with BIW President Jeffrey Geiger.

As they did so, President Barack Obama and Congress are sparring over automatic cuts that could devastate the military’s civilian work force should the government not be able to address the nation’s debt crisis by March 1.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told Congress on Wednesday that if a budget deal isn’t reached, he may have to shorten the work week for the “vast majority” of the Defense Department’s 800,000 civilian workers.

They’d lose one day of work per week, or 20 percent of their pay, for up to 22 weeks, probably starting in late April.

And that could mean pay cuts for people who work at Bath Iron Works and Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

According to the Navy, 1,121 temporary workers would lose their jobs nationwide, mostly in shipyards.

Collins and King addressed such concerns in a letter to the president and Congress.

They expressed “deep concern over the impact that sequestration would have on national security, including the defense industrial base in Maine, and our nation’s fragile economic recovery.”

Failure to avert such an outcome, they continued, “could have severe ramifications for our nation’s shipbuilding industrial base, including Bath Iron Works in Maine, the nation’s premier shipbuilder and employer of more than 5,000 workers.”

The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1. Defense officials have said that civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.

The Pentagon furloughs would affect civilians across the country, including at BIW, which builds Navy warships. Pentagon officials have said that civilians could face up to 22 days of furloughs, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year in September. The employees would receive 30 days notice before being furloughed.

“We are doing everything possible to limit the worst effects on DOD personnel — but I regret that our flexibility within the law is extremely limited,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wrote in a message to the department. “The president has used his legal authority to exempt military personnel funding from sequestration, but we have no legal authority to exempt civilian personnel funding from reductions.”