NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The state may have to lay off about 160 administrative staffers at the Department of Children's Services because of cutbacks in federal funding, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Wednesday.

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Bredesen, a Democrat, said rule changes at the federal level are likely to cut $73 million out of the department's annual $109 million targeted case management system.

The state will still work to preserve the program designed to "to bring together in one place and one person all the services a child needs to access," Bredesen said.

The people to whom Bredesen referred are case managers who provide one-stop shopping for children in need, because they arrange their health care, educational needs and all their other services.

While members of the state's congressional delegation try to turn back the cuts, Bredesen said the state must plan for the reduced funding becoming permanent.

The governor acknowledged that the cutbacks will be needed in other areas to keep the case management system in tact.

"The cuts to get to those kinds of numbers will be visible and painful kinds of cuts," he said.

"The targeted case management is at the core of what DCS is about," Bredesen said. "This is the idea of trying to take a single case manager to deal with the variety of issues a child might have."

The department's 2,000 case workers are assigned work with the 30,000 children it supervises.

The department has been working in recent years to ramp up the qualifications of its case workers by increasing salaries to attract and retain better employees.

Bredesen said he plans to ask the Legislature for a temporary change in civil service laws so no case management workers get laid off regardless of their seniority. Under civil service rules, the last hired are normally the first fired.

The governor said he will ask to "basically put a fence around these targeted case management workers" while layoffs are made between July 1 and Oct. 1.

"I would bend over backwards not to undo that because of this cut in federal funding," he said.

Bredesen said state grants to juvenile courts and community agencies are another likely area for cuts.

The federal rule changes took effect last month, but Bredesen said he will tap TennCare reserves to bridge the funding gap through the budget year that ends June 30. But he said he doesn't hold out much hope of preventing the cuts.

The total budget at DCS is $650 million. The state commissioner said cutting $73 million is an enormous loss.

Lawmakers said on Thursday that they would look at a plan to give the department more flexibility with the cuts in hopes of keeping existing workers where they are.

The lawmakers said they fear the cuts could possibly hurt the good things that have happened with children's services.